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PRESENTED 



l\va UBRARy <,/ ^x 




iNiTEB States foeiNEEi Sgiool, 



BY 



1st Lieut. JAMES G. WARKEKT, Corps of Engineers. 



September, 1891. 



THE HUGUENOTS 



THEIR 



SETTLEMENTS, CHURCHES, AND INDUSTRIES 
IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 






By SAMUEL SMILES, 

AUTHOR OF "SELF-HELP," "LIVES OF THE ENGINEERS," ETC 



WITH AN APPENDIX RELATING TO 



THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 



NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
1868. 



^1 .A.-^^'*' / 



cX^ 



\ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-seven, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of 
New York. 








H^' a !^_ Q 



c O O 



PREFACE 




The geographical position of Britain has, from the ear- 
liest times, rendered it a country of refuge. Fronting Eu- 
rope, yet separated from it by a deep sea -moat, the pro- 
scribed of other lands have by turns sought the protection 
of the island fortress, and made it their home. To the 
country of the Britons the Saxons brought their industry, 
the Northmen their energy, and the Flemings and French 
their skill and spirit of liberty ; and out of the whole has 
come the English nation. • 

The early industry of England was almost entirely pas- 
toral. Down to a comparatively recent period it was a 
great grazing country, and its principal staple was wool. 
The English people being as yet unskilled in the arts of 
manufacture, the wool was bought up by foreign mer- 
chants, and exported abroad in large quantities, principal- 
ly to Flanders and France, there to be manufactured into 
cloth, and partly returned in that form for sale in the En- 
glish markets. 

The English kings, desirous of encouraging home in- 
dustry, beld out repeated inducements to foreign artisans 
to come over and settle in the country for the purpose of 
instructing their subjects in the industrial arts. This poli- 
cy was pursued during many successive reigns, more par- 
ticularly in that of Edward III. ; and, by the middle of 
the fourteenth century, large numbers of Flemish artisans, 
driven out of the Low Countries by the tyranny of the 
trades-unions as well as by civil war, embraced the offers 



H«.j n cr. c 



PREFACE. 



held out to them, settled in various parts of England, and 
laid the foundations of English skilled industry.* 

But by far the most important migrations of skilled 
foreigners out of Europe were occasioned by the religious 
persecutions which prevailed in Flanders and France for 
a considerable period after the Reformation. Two great 
waves of foreign population then flowed over from the 
Continent into England — probably the largest in point of 
numbers which have occurred since the date of the Saxon 
settlement. The first took place in the latter half of the 
sixteenth century, and consisted partly of French, but prin- 
cipally of Flemish Protestants ; the second, toward the end 
of the seventeenth century, consisted almost entirely of 
French Huguenots. 

The second of these emigrations, consequent on the re- 
ligious persecutions which followed the Eevocation of the 
Edict of ISTantes by Louis XIY., was of extraordinary mag- 
nitude. According to Sismondi, the loss which it occa- 
sioned to France was not far short of a million of persons, 
and those her best and most industrious subjects. Al- 
though the circumstances connected with this remarkable 
exodus, as well as the events which flowed from them, ex- 
ercised an important influence on the political as well as 
industrial history of Northern Europe, they have as yet, 
viewed in this connection, received but slight notice at the 
hands of the historian. 

It is the object of the following book more particularly 
to give an account of the causes which led to this last great 
migration of foreign Protestants from France into England, 
and to describe its effects upon English industry as well as 
English history. The author merely offers the book as a 
contribution to the subject, which seems to him to be one 
well worthy of farther investigation. 
London, July, 1867. 

* See Appendix for account of the " Early Settlement of Foreign Arti- 
sans in England." 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

INVENTION OP PEIOTING. — RISE OP THE ETOGUENOTS. 

Invention of Printing. — Dearness of MS. Books. — Power conferred on Ed- 
ucated Men by Printing. — Coster, Gutenburg, Schceffer. — The first printed 
Bible. — Faust of Mainz. — Diffusion of Printing: — Spread of printed Bi- 
bles. — Opposed by the .Priests. — Effects of reading the Bible. — Luther's 
Translation. — Bibles printed at Antwerp. — Eager Demand for the Scrip- 
tures. — Ecclesiastical Abuses assailed. — The Reformation at Meaux. — 
Jacques Lefevre. — ^Resistance of the Sorbonne. — Burning of Bibles and 
Printers. — Rise of the Huguenots Page 13 

CHAPTER n. 

EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF BEENARD PALISST. 

The Life of Palissy illustrative of his Epoch. — His Birth and Education. — 
Travels through France, Germany, and Flanders. — The prevailing Excite- 
ment. — ^Palissy joins "The Religion." — Life at Saintes. — His pursuit of 
the Secret of the Enamel. — His Sufferings. — Calvin at Saintonge. — Pa- 
lissy begins a Reformed Church at Saintes. — ^The early Gospellers. — ^Phil- 
ebert Hamelin. — Progress of "The Religion." — The Pei-secutions at 
Saintes. — Palissy employed by the Duke of Montmorency. — Imprisoned 
at Bordeaux. — Liberated and made Royal Potter. — Dies for his Religion 
in the Bastile 31 

CHAPTER IH. 

PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS. 

Huguenot Men of Genius. — Spread of "The Religion." — Charles IX. and 
Catharine de Medicis. — ^A National Council held. — ^The Chancellor dc 
I'Hopital, — Catharine's Letter to the Pope. — Outbreak of Persecution. — 
Massacre of Vassy. — The Duke of Guise : Triumph of his Policy. — Mas- 
sacres throughout France. — Civil War. — The Iconoclasts. — Treaty of 
Peace. — Council of Trent. — Catharine de Medicis and the Duke of Alva. 
— ^Ignatius Loyola. — Persecutions in Flanders. — Philip II. of Spain. — 
Devastation of the Low Countries and Flight of the Protestants. — Mar- 



CONTENTS. 



riage of Henry of Navai-re and Margaret of France. — Attempted Assas- 
sination of Admiral Coligny. — Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. — Rejoic- 
ings at Rome.— Death of Charles IX. — Flight of Huguenots. — Renewed 
Civil War.— Accession of Henry IV.— The Edict of Nantes Page 50 

CHAPTER IV. 

KELATIONS OP ENGLAND WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. 

England at the Accession of Elizabeth. — The Pope denies the Queen's Le- 
gitimacy. — ^Plots against her Life. — The English Asylam granted to the 
Foreign Protestants a cause of Offense abroad. — ^Demands that the Fugi- 

. tives be expelled the Kingdom. — The Pope denounces the Refugees. — 
Bishop Jewel's Defense of them. — French and Spanish Plots against 
Elizabeth. — Mary Queen of Scots. — The Pope's Bull against Elizabeth. — 
The Bishop of Ross and Ridolfi. — Conference at Madrid. — The Plots de- 
feated. — News of the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew arrive in England. 
—Reception of the French Embassador by Elizabeth. — Execution of the 
Queen of Scots. — Continued Flight of the Refugees from Flanders. — De- 
feat of the Sacred Armada. — The Reigns of Philip II. and Elizabeth con- 
trasted 71 

CHAPTER V. 

SETTLEMENTS AND INDrSTRIES OF THE PROTESTANT REFUGEES IN BRITAIN. 

Early English Industry. — ^The Woolen Manufacture. — Extensive Immigra- 
tions of Flemish Protestant Artisans. — Landings at Sandwich, Rye, and 
Dover. — Their Settlement at Sandwich. — Cloth-making and Gardening 
introduced. — ^The Flemings in London. — Their Industries. — Dye-works at 
Bow. — Native Jealousy. — The Flemish Merchants. — Numbers of the Im- 
migrants. — Settlement at Norwich. — Protected by Queen Elizabeth. — Es- 
tablishment of the Cloth Manufacture. — Flemish Lace-makers. — ^Workers 
in Iron and Steel. — ^Fishing Settlement at Yarmouth. — Drainers of the 
Fen-lands. — Settlements in Ireland. — ^Flemings in Scotland. — Reaction- 
ary Policy of Charles I. summarily checked 85 

CHAPTER VI. 

EARLY WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 

Desire of the Refugees for Freedom of Worship. — ^The first Walloon and 
French Churches in London. — Dutch Church in Austin Friars. — French 
Church in Threadneedle Street. — Churches at Sandwich, Rye, Norwich. 
—"God's House" at Southampton. — Register of their Church. — Their 
Fasts and Thanksgivings.— Walloon Church at Canterbury.— Memorial 
of the Refugees. — The Undercroft in Canterbury Cathedral. — The Lady 
Chapel.— Occupation of the Undercroft by the Walloons. — The French 
Church still in Canterburv Cathedral 113 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIL 

RENEWAL OP THE PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. — ^REVOCATION OF THE EDICT 
OF NANTES. 

Assassination of Henry IV. — Marie de Medicis. — ^Renewal of Civil War in 
France. — Cardinal Richelieu. — Siege of Rochelle. — The Huguenots sup- 
pressed as a Political Body. — Edict of Pardon. — Loyalty of the Hugue- 
riots. — Their Industry. — Their Manufactures. — ^Their Integrity as Mer- 
chants. — Colbert. — Absolutism of Louis XIV. — His Ambition. — His Ex- 
travagance. — His Enmity to the Huguenots. — The Persecution renewed. 

. — Emigration prohibited. — Cruel Edicts of Louis. — His Amours and 
"Conversion." — Madame de Maintenon. — Attempt to purchase Hugue- 
not Consciences. — Abduction of Protestant Children. — The Dragonnades. 
—Wholesale Conversions. — The Protestant Churches destroyed. — Inci- 
dent at Saintonge. — ^Dragonnades in Beam. — Louis XIV. revokes the 
Edict of Nantes, and marries Madame de Maintenon Page 128 

CHAPTER Vni. 

RENEWED TLIGHT OF THE HUGUENOTS FROM FRANCE. 

Rejoicings at Rome on the Revocation of the Edict. — ^Bossuet's and Massil- 
lon's praises of Louis XIV. — Consequences of the Revocation. — The Mil- 
itary Jacquerie. — Demolition of Protestant Churches. — ^Employment qf 
the Huguenots proscribed. — Pursued beyond Death. — M. de Chenevix. — 
Conversion or Flight. — Escape of Literary and Scientific Men. — Schom- 
berg, Ruvigny, Duquesne. — The Banished Pastors. — Historical Signifi- 
cance of the Exodus. — General Flight of the Huguenots. — Closing of the 
Frontier.— Capture and Punishment of the Detected. — ^Flight in Disguise. 
— Flight of Women. — Jean Marteilhe of Bergerac. — The Captured con- 
demned to the Galleys. — Louis de Marolles. — John Huber. — The Flight 
by Sea. — Count de Marance. — ^The Lord of Castelfranc. — The Misses 
liaboteau. — Case of a French Gentlewoman Refugee. — Fumigation of 
Ships' Holds. — Numbers of the Fugitives from France. — A Death-blow 
given to French Industiy 152 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE HUGUENOTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OP 1688. 

The Counties of the Refuge. — The Asylum of Geneva. — The Huguenots in 
Switzerland; in Brandenburg and Germany. — Holland "The Great Ark 
of the Fugitives." — Eminent Refugees in the Low Countries. — Their Hos- 
pitable Reception by the Dutch. — Refugee Soldiers and Sailors. — Wil- 
liam, Prince of Orange : his Relation to the English Throne. 7-The Stuarc 
Kings and the Protestant Refugees. — Accession of James II. : compared 
with Louis XIV. — Attempts to suppress Protestantism. — Popular Reac- 
tion.— William of Orange invited over to England. — French Hnguenot 
Ofiieers and Soldiers in the Dutch Army. — Marshal Schomberg 171 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEB X. 

DUMONT DE BOSTAQUET. — HIS ESCAPE FROM PEANCE INTO HOLLAND 

Dumont de Bostaquet, a Protestant Gentleman of Normandy : his Church 
at Lindebceuf demolished. — Dragonnades in Normandy. — Scenes at Eou- 
en. — Soldiers quartered in Protestant Families. — De Bostaquet promises 
Abjuration. — His Family pretend to abjure. — They meditate Flight from 
France. — Attempted Escape. — Journey to the Sea-coast. — Attacked ■"by 
the Coast-guard. — De Bostaquet Wounded. — His Flight through Picardy, 
and Sufferings. — Eefuge in Holland .' Page 192 

CHAPTER XI. 

DE BOSTAQUET IN ENGLAND. — THE IRISH CABIPAIGNS OF 1689-90. 

Expedition of William of Orange to England.— The Flotilla sets sail.— Voy- 
age along the English Coast. — Landing at Torbay. — Advance to Exeter 
and London. — Eevolution of 1688. — The Exiles in London, — The Mar- 
quis de Ruvigny at Greenwich. — De Bostaquet's Family in England. — * 
Huguenot Regiments sent into Ireland. —The Irish Campaign of 1689. — 
Losses of the Army at Dundalk. — Landing of James H. in Ireland with 
a French Array. — Huguenot Regiments recruited in Switzerland. — Wil- 
liam III. takes the Field in Person. —Campaign of 1690.— Battle of the 
Boyne. — ^Death of Marshal Schomberg 205 

CHAPTER Xn. 

HUGUENOT OFFICERS IN THE BRITISH SERVICE. 

Henry, Second Marquis de Ruvigny, distinguishes himself at the Battle of 
Aughrim, and is created Earl of Galway. — "War in Savoy. — Earl of Gal- 
way placed in Command. — Appointed Lord Justice in Ireland. — Found- 
ing of Portarlington. — Earl of Galway takes Command of the Army in 
Spain. — ^Bravery of the Huguenot Soldiers. — Jean Cavalier, the Camisard 
Leader. — The War of the Blouses. — Cavalier enters the Service of Wil- 
liam III. — His Desperate Valor at the Battle of Almanza in Spain. — 
Made Governor of Jersey and Major General. — Rapin-Thoyras, the Sol- 
dier-Historian. — John de Bodt, the Engineer. — Field Marshal LordLigo- 
nier. — ^The Huguenot Sailors. — The Admirals Gambier 217 

CHAPTER Xm. 

HUGUENOT SETTLERS IN ENGLAND. — MEN OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING. 

The Huguenot Refugees for Liberty. — The Emigration a Protest against In- 
tellectual and Religious Tyranny. — Eminent Refugees. — Solomon de Caus. 
— Denis Papin, his Scientific Eminence. — Dr. Desaguliers. — Abraham de 
Moivrc. — Refngee Literati. — Refugee Pastors : Abbadie ; Saurin ; Allix ; 
Pineton, his Escape from France. — Refugee Graduates of Oxford. — The 
Da Moulins. — James Capell. — Claude de la Mothe. — Armand du Bour- 
dieu 230 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. — 3IEN OF INDUSTRY. 

Flight of the Manufacturing Class from France. — Districts from which they 
chiefly came. — Money brought by them into England. — Measures taken 
for the relief of the Destitute. — French Relief Committee. — The Hugue- 
nots self-helping and helpful of each other. — Their Benefit Societies. — 
Their settlements in Spitalfields and other parts of London. — Introduce 
new branches of Industry from France. — Establishment of the Silk Blan- 
ufacture.— Silk Stocking Trade. — Glass-works. — ^Paper-mills. — The De 
Portal Family. — Henry de Portal, the Paper-maker. — Manufactures at 
Canterbury, Norwich, and Ipswich. — ^Lace-making. — Refugee Industry in 
Scotland Page 250 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 

Large number of Refugee Churches in London. — French Church of Thread- 
needle Street. — Church of the Savoy. — Swallow Street Church, Piccadilly. 
— French Churches in Spitalfields. — Churches in Suburban Districts. — 
Tlie Malthouse Church, Canterbury. — "God's House," Southampton. — 
French Churches at Bristol, Plymouth, Stonehouse, Dartmouth, and Exe- 
ter. — Church at Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex. — Gradual Decadence of the 
Churches. — Sermon of the Rev. M. Bourdillon. — Founding of the Erencli 
Hospital. — Governors and Directors of the Institution 270 

CHAPTER XVL 

HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

Attempts to establish the Linen-trade in Ireland by Refugees. — The Duke 
of Ormond. — Efforts of William III. to promote Irish Industiy. — Refugee 
Colony at Dublin. — Settlement at Lisburn, near Belfast. — Louis Crom- 
raelin appointed "Overseer of Royal Linen Manufactory of Ireland." — 
His Labors crowned with Success. — Peter. Goyer. — Settlements at Kil- 
kenny and Cork. — Life and Adventures of James Fontaine in England 
and Ireland. — Settlement at Youghal. — Refugee Colony at Waterford. — 
The French Town of Portarlington : its Inhabitants and their Descend- 
ants 283 

CHAPTER XVIL 

DESCENDANTS OP THE REFUGEES. 

The Descendants of the Refugee Flemings and French still recognizable in 
England. — Changes of Name by the Flemings. — The Des Bouveries Fam- 
ily. — Hugessens. — Houblons. — Eminent Descendants of Flemish Refu- 
gees. — The Grote Family. — Changes of French Names. — Names still pre- 
sei-ved. — The Queen's Descent from a Huguenot. — The Trench Family. 
— Peers descended from Huguenots. — Peerages of Taunton, Evei-sley, and 



CONTENTS. 



Romilly. — The Lefevres. — ^Family of Komilly. — ^Baronets descended from 
Huguenots. — Members of Parliament. — Eminent Scholars: Archdeacon 
Jortin, Maturin, Dutens, Rev. William Romaine. — Eminent Lawyers de- 
scended from Refugees. — Eminent Literary Men of the same Origin. — 
The Handloom-weavers of Spitalfields. — ^The DoUonds. — ^Lewis Paul, in- 
ventor of Spinning by Rollers. — Migration from Spitalfields. — The last 
Persecutions in France. — The Descendants of the Huguenot Refugees be- 
come British Page 307 

CHAPTER xym. 

CONCLUSION. — THE FKENCH REVOLTTriON. 

Effects of the Persecutions in Flanders and France. — Suppression of Protest- 
antism and Liberty. — Disappearance of Great Men in France after the 
Revocation. — Triumph of the Jesuits. — Aggrandizement of the Church. — 
Hunger and Emptiness of the People. — Extinction of Religion. — The 
Church assailed by Voltaire. — Persecution of the Clergy. — The Reign of 
Terror. — Flight of the Nobles and Clergy from France into Germany and 
England. — The Dragonnades of the Huguenots repeated in the Noyades 
of the Royalists. — Louis XVL and Marie Antoinette the Victims of Louis 
XIV. — Relation of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the Frencli 
Revolution. — Conclusion 340 



appe:n-dix. 

L Early Settlement of Foreign Artisans in England 353 

IL Registers of French Protestant Churches in England 368 

IIL Huguenot Refugees and their Descendants 397 

The Huguenots in America 427 

Index 443 



THE HUGUENOTS. 



CHAPTER L 

IKYENTION- OP PRINTrN-G. — BISE OF THE HTTGITENOTS. 

Of all inventions, probably none has exercised a greater 
influence upon modern civilization than that of printing. 
Wliile it has been the mother and preserver of many other 
inventions which have changed the face of society, it has 
also afforded facilities for the intercourse of mind with mind 
— of living men with each other, as well as with the think- 
ers of past generations — which have evoked an extraordi- 
nary degree of mental activity, and exercised a powerM in- 
fluence on the development of modem history. 

Although letters were diligently cultivated long before 
the invention of printing, and many valuable books existed 
in manuscript, and seminaries of learning flourished in all 
civilized countries, knowledge was for the most part con- 
fined to a comparatively small number of persons. The 
manuscripts which contained the treasured thoughts of the 
ancient poets, scholars, and men of science, were so scarce 
and dear that they were frequently sold for double or treble 
their weight in gold. In some cases they were considered 
so precious that they were conveyed by deed like landed 
estate. In the thirteenth century a manuscript copy of the 
Romance of the Rose was sold at Paris for over £33 ster- 
ling. A copy of the Bible cost from £40 to £60 for the 
writing only, for it took an expert copyist about ten months' 



U INVENTION OF PRINTING. 

labor to make one.* Sucli Ibeing the case, it Trill be obvious 
that books were then for the most part the luxury of the 
rich, and comparatively inaccessible to the great body of the 
people. 

Even the most advanced minds could exercise but little 
influence on their age. They were able to address them- 
selves to only a very limited number of their fellow-men, 
and in most cases their influence died with them. The re- 
sults- of study, investigation, and experience rejnainuig un- 
recorded, knowledge was for the most part transmitted oral- 
ly, and often inaccurately. Thug many arts and inventions 
discovered by individuals became lost to the race, and a 
point of social stagnation was arrived at, beyond which far- 
ther, progress seemed improbable. 

This state of things was entirely changed by the intro- 
duction of printing. It gave a new birth to letters ; it ena- 
bled books to be perpetually renovated and multipled at a 
comparatively moderate cost, and to diffuse the light which 
they contained over a much larger number of minds. It 
gave a greatly increased power to the individual and to so- 
ciety, by facilitatmg the intercourse of educated men of all 
countries with each other. Active thinkers were no longer 
restricted by the limits of their town or parish, or even of 
their nation or epoch ; and the knowledge that their printed 

* It is difficult to form an accurate idea of the relative value of money to 
commodities in the thirteentli century, compared with present prices ; but it 
may be mentioned that in 1445 (according to Fleetwood's Chronicon Pretio- 
sujn, 1707) the price of wheat was is. Qd. the quarter, and oats 2s.; bullocks 
and heifers sold for 5s., and sheep for 2s. 5^d. each. In 1460 a gallon of 
ale sold for a penny, which was also the ordinary day's wage of laborers and 
servants, in addition to meat and drink. As late as 1558, a good sheep sold 
for 2s. lOd. In 1414 the ordinary salary of chaplains was five or six marks 
a year (the mark being equal to 13s. 4c?.), and of resident parish priests eight 
marks ; so that for about £5 10s. a year a single man was expected to live 
cleanly and decently. These prices multiplied by about twelve would give 
something approaching their equivalent in modern money. It is true, man- 
uscripts were in many cases sold at .fancy prices, as books are now. But 
copying had become a regular branch of business : at Milan, in the four- 
teenth century, about fifty persons earned their living by it. The ordinary 
charge for making a copy of the Bible was 80 Bologna livres, or equal to 
53 gold florins. 



GUTENBERG AND SCHCEFFER. 



Tvords Tvould have an effect where tlieii- spoken words did 
not reach, could not fail to stimulate the highest order of 
minds into action. The permanency of invention and dis- 
covery was thus secured; the most advanced point of one 
generation became the starting-point of the next ; and the 
results of the labors of one age were carried forward into all 
the ages that succeeded.* 

The invention of printing, like most others, struggled slow- 
ly and obscurely into life. The wooden blocks or tablets of 
Laurence Coster were superseded by separate types of the 
same material Gutenberg, of Mentz, next employed large 
types cut in metal, from which the impressions were taken. 
And, finally, Gutenberg's associate, Schoeffer, cut the charac- 
ters in a matrix, after which the types were cast, and thus 
completed the art as it now remains. 

It is a remarkable circumstance, that the first book which 
Gutenberg undertook to print with his cut metal types was 
a folio edition of the Bible in the Latin Vulgate, consisting 
of 641 leaves. When the immense labor involved in carry- 
ing out such a work is considered — the cutting by hand, 
with imperfect tools, of each separate type required for the 
setting of a folio page, and the difficulties to be overcome 
with respect to vellum, paper, ink, and press-work — one can 
not but feel astonished at the boldness of the undertaking ; 
nor can it be matter of surprise that the execution of the 
work occupied Gutenberg and his associates a period of from 
seven to eight years. f 

* See BabbagEj Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, 52-6. Lord Bacon observes: 
"If the invention of ships was thought so noble, which carrieth riches and 
commodities from place to place, how much more are letters to be magni- 
fied, which, as ships, pass through the vast seas of time, and make ages so 
distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the one 
of the other." 

t The first Bible printed bj Gutenberg is known as the Mazarin Bible, 
from a copy of it having been found in Cardinal Mazarin's library at Paris 
about the middle of last century. Johnson, in his Typographia (p. 17), 
says : "It was printed with large cut metal types, and published in 1450." 
Others give the* date of publication as five years later, in 1455. Mr. Hal- 
lam inclines to think that it was printed with cast-metal types ; but there is 
reason to believe that the casting of the types by a matrix was invented at 



16 INVENTION OF PRINTING, 

We do not, however, suppose that Gutenberg and his as- 
sociates were induced to execute this first printed Bihle 
through any more lofty motive than that of earning a con- 
siderable sum of money by the enterprise. They were, 
doubtless, tempted to undertake it by the immense prices 
for which manuscript copies of the Bible then sold; and 
they merely sought to produce, by one set of operations, a 
number of duplicates in imitation of the written character, 
which they hoped to be able to sell at the manuscript prices. 
But, as neither Gutenberg nor Schoeffer were rich men, and 
as the work involved great labor and expense while in prog- 
ress, they found it necessary to invite some capitalist to join 
them; and hence their communication of the secret to John 
Faust, the wealthy goldsmith of Mentz, who agreed to join 
them in their venture, and supply them with the necessary 
means for carrying out the undertaking. 

The first edition of the printed Bible having been disposed 
of, without the secret having transj)ired, Faust and Schoeflfer 
brought out a second edition in 1462, which they again of- 
fered for sale at the manuscript prices. Faust carried a 
number of copies to Paris to dispose of, and sold several of 
them for 500 or 600 crowns, the price then paid for manu- 
script Bibles. But great was the astonishment of the Paris- 
ian copyists when Faust, anxious to dispose of the remain- 
der, lowered his price to 60 and then to 30 crowns ! The 
copies sold having been compared with each other, were 
found to be exactly uniform ! It was immediately inferred 

a subsequent period. Mr. Hallam says: "It is a very striking circum- 
stance that the high-minded inventors of this great art tried at the very out- 
set so bold a flight as the printing an entire Bible, and executed it with as- 
tonishing success. It was Minerva leaping on earth in her divine strength 
and radiant armor, ready at the moment of her nativity to subdue and de- 
stroy her enemies. The Mazarin Bible is printed, some copies on vellum, 
some on paper of choice quality, with strong, black, and tolerably handsome 
characters, but with some want of uniformity, which has led, perhaps un- 
reasonably, to doubt whether they were cast in a matrix. We may see in 
imagination this venerable and splendid volume leading up the crowded 
myriads of its followers, and imploring, as it were, a blessing on the new 
art, by dedicating its first-fruits to the service of Heaven." — Literary His- 
tory, edition 1864, p. 156-7. 



PRINTING OF THE BIBLE. 



that these Bibles must be produced by magic, as such an es:- 
traordinaiy uniformity was considered entirely beyond the 
reach of human contrivance. Information was forthwith 
given to the police against Faust as a magician. His lodg- 
ings were searched, when a number of Bibles were found 
there complete. The red ink with which they were embel- 
lished was supposed to be his blood. It was seriously be- 
lieved that he was in league with the devil; and he was 
carried off to prison, from which he was only delivered upon 
making a full revelation of the secret.* 

Several other books, of less importance, were printed by 
Gutenberg and Schceffer at Mentz : two editions of the Psal- 
ter, a Catholicon, a Codex Psalmorum, and an edition of Cic- 
ero's Offices ; but they were printed in such small numbers, 
and were sold at such, high prices, that, like the manusciipts 
which they superseded, they were only purchasable by kings, 
nobles, collegiate bodies, and rich ecclesiastical establish- 
ments. It was only after the lapse of many years, when the 
manufacture of paper had become improved, and Schoeffer 
had invented his method of cuttincr the characters in a ma- 
trix, and casting the type in quantity, that books could be 
j)rinted in such forms as to be accessible to the great body 
of the people. 

In the mean while, the printing establishments of Guten- 
berg and Schoeffer were for a time broken up by the sack 
and plunder of Mentz by the Archbishop Adolplius in 1462, 
when, their workmen becoming dispersedj and being no lon- 
ger bound to secrecy, they shortly after carried with them the 
invention of the new art into nearly every country in Eu- 
rope. 

Wherever the printers set up their trade, they usually be- 
gan by issuing an edition of the Latin Bible. There was no 
author class in those days to supply " copy" enough to keep 
their presses going. Accordingly, they fell back upon the 

* Such is supposed to be the origin of the tradition of " The Devil and 
Dr. Faustus." It is believed that Faust died of the plague at Paris in 1466. 

B 



18 INVENTION OF PRINTING. 

ancient authors, issuing editions of Livy, Horace, Sallust, Cic- 
ero, and portions of Aiistotle, with occasional devotional 
manuals ; but their favorite book, most probably because it 
was the one most in demand, was the Bible. Only twenty- 
four books were published in Germany during the ten years 
that followed the sack of Mentz ; but of these five were Latin 
and two were German Bibles. Translators were at the same 
time busily engaged upon it in different countries, and year 
by year the Bible became more accessible. Thus an Italian 
version appeared in 1471, a Bohemian in l^^S, a Dutch in 
1477, a French in 1477, and a Spanish (Yalencian) in 1478.* 
The Bible, however, continued a comparatively scarce and 
dear book, being little known to the clergy generally, and 
still less to the people. By many of the former it was re- 
garded with suspicion* and even with hostility. At length, 
the number of editions of the Bible which were published in 
Germany, as if heralding the approach of the coming Refor- 
mation, seriously alarmed the Church; and in 1486 the Arch- 
bishop of Mentz placed the printers of that city, which had 
been the cradle of the printing-press, under strict censorship. 
Twenty-five years later, Pope Alexander VI issued a bull 
prohibiting the printers of Cologne, Mentz, Treves, and Mag- 
deburg from publishing any books without the express li- 
cense of their archbishops. Although these measures were 
directed against the printmg of religious works generally, 
they were more particularly directed against the publication 
of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, f 

* Lord Spencer's famous library contains twenty editions of the Bible in 
Latin, printed between the appearance of the Mazarin Bible in 1450-5 and 
the year 1480 inclusive. It also contains nine editions of the German Bi- 
ble printed before the year 1495. — See Edwards on Libraries, p. 430. 

t Hallam — Litei-ary History, ed. 1864, i., 254. No translation of the Bi- 
ble was permitted to appear in England during the fifteenth century ; and 
the reading of WycliiFe's translation was prohibited under penalty of excom- 
munication and death. Tyndale's translation of the New Testament was 
first printed at Antwerp. The government tried to suppress the book, and 
many copies were seized and burnt. John Tyndale, a merchant of London, 
brother of the translator, having been convicted of reading the New Testa- 
ment, was sentenced by the excellent Sir Thomas More "that he should be 
-set upon a horse with his face to the tail, and have a paper pinned upon his 



PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. 19 

The j)rinters, nevertheless, continued to j^rint the Bible, re- 
gardless of these prohibitions — the Old Testament in He- 
brew, the new in Greek, and both in Latin, German, French, 
and other modern languages. Finding that the reading of 
the Bible was extending, the priests began to inveigh against 
the practice from the pulj)it. " They have now found out," 
said a French monk, " a new language called Greek ; we must 
careftilly guard ourselves against it. That language will be 
the mother of all sorts of heresies. I see in the hands of a 
great number of persons a book written in this language, 
called ' The ISTew Testament ;' it is a book full of brambles, 
with vipers in them. As to the Hebrew, whoever learns that 
becomes a Jew at once."* 

The fears of the priests increased as they saw theii' flocks 
becoming more intent upon reading the Scriptures, or hear- 
ing them read, than attending niass ; and they were especial- 
ly concerned at the growing disposition of the peojole to call 
in question the infallibility of the Church and the sacred char- 
acter of the priesthood. It was every day becoming clearer 
to them that if the people were permitted to resort to books, 
and pray to God direct in their vulgar tongue, instead of 
through the priests in Latin, the authority of the mass would 
fall, and the Church itself would be endangered. f A most 

head, and many sheets of New Testaments sewn to his cloak, to be after- 
wai'd thrown into a gi-eat fire kindled in Cheapside, and then pay to the 
king a fine which should ruin him." 

* SiSMONDi — Histoire des Frangais, xvi., 364. 

t Lord Herbert, in his Life of Henry VII. (p. 147), supposed Cardinal 
Wolsey to have stated the efil'ects of printing to the pope in the following 
terms: "That his holiness could not be ignorant what deverse effects the 
new invention of printing had produced ; for it had brought in and restored 
books and learning ; so together it hath been the occasion of those sects and 
schisms which daily appear in the world, but especially in Germany ; where 
men begin now to call in question the present faith and tenets of the Church, 
and to examine how far religion is departed from its primitive institution. 
And that, which particularly was most to be lamented, they had exhorted 
lay and ordinary men to read the Scriptures, and to pray in their vulgar 
tongue ; and if this was suffered, besides all other dangers, the common 
people at last might come to believe that there was not so much use of the 
clergy. For if men were persuaded once they could make their own way 
to God, and that prayers in their native and ordinary language might pierce 
heaven as well as Latin, how much would the authority of the mass fall ! 



20 INVENTION OF PRINTING. 

forcible expression was given to this view by tlie Yicar of 
Croydon in a sermon preached by him at Paul's Cross, in 
■which he boldly declared that " we must root out printing, 
or printing will root out us." 

But printing could not be rooted out any more than the 
hand of Time could be put back. This invention, unlike ev- 
ery other, contained within itself a self-preserving power 
which insured its perpetuation. Its method had become 
known, and was recorded by itself. Priuted books were now 
part of the inheritance of the human race; and though they 
might be burnt, as vast numbers of Bibles were, so that they 
might be kept out of the hands of the people, so long as a 
single copy remained it was not lost, but was capable of im- 
mediate restoration and of mfinite multiplication. 

The intense interest which the publication of the Bible ex- 
cited, and the emotion it raised in the minds of those who 
read it, are matters of history. At this day, when Bibles are 
common in almost every household, it is perhaps difficult to 
appreciate the deep feeling of awe and reverence with which 
men for the first time perused the sacred volume. We have 
become so familiar with it, that we are apt to look upon it 
merely as one among many books — as part of the current 
literature of the day, or as a record of ancient history, to be 
checked off by the aritlmaetician and analyzed by the critic. 

It was far different in those early times, when the Bible 

was rare and precious. Printing had brought forth the Book, 

which had lain so long silent in manuscript beneath the dust 

of old libraries, and laid it before the people, to be read by 

them in their own tongue. It was known to be the very 

charter and title-deed of Christianity — the revelation of God's 

own will to man ; and now, to read it, or hear it read, was 

like meeting God face to face, and listening to His voice 

speaking directly to them. 

For this purpose, since printing could not be put down, it was best to set up 
learning against learning ; and by introducing all persons to dispute, to sus- 
pend the laity between fear and controversy. This, at most, would make 
them attentive to their superiors and teachers." 



READING OF TEE BIBLE. 21 

At first it could only be read to the people ; and in the 
English cathedrals, where single copies were placed, chained 
to a niche, eager groups gathered round to drink in its liv- 
ing truths. But as the art of printing improved, and copies 
of the Bible became multiplied in portable forms, it could 
then be taken home into the study or the chamber, and read 
and studied in secret. It was found to b.e an ever-fresh 
gushing spring of thought, welling up, as it were, from the 
Infinite. IN"© wonder that men pondered over it with rev- 
erence, and read it with thanksgiving ! Ko wonder that it 
moved their hearts, influenced their thoughts, gave a color 
to theu* familiar speech,* and imparted a bias to their whole 
life! 

To the thoughtful, the perusal of the Bible gave new views 
of life and death ; showed them man, standing on the nar- 
row isthmus of time which divides the eternity of the past 
from the eternity of the future — a weak, helpless, and sinful 
creature, yet the object of God's unceasing care. Its effect 
was to make those who pondered its lessons more solemn ; it 
made the serious more earnest, and im]Dressed them with a 
deeper sense of responsibility and duty. To the poor, the 
suffering, and the struggling, it was the aurora of a new 
world. With this Book in their hands, what to them were 
the afilictions of time, which were but for a moment, work- 
ing out for them " a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory?" 

It was the accidental sight of a copy of one of Gutenberg's 
Bibles in the library of the convent of Erfurt, where Luther 
was in training for a monk, that fixed his destiny for life.f 

* The perusal and study of the Bible in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies exercised an important influence on literature in all countries. The 
ffreat writers of the period unconsciously adopted Bible phraseology to a 
large extent — the thoughts of Scripture clothing themselves in language 
which became habitual to all who studied it closely. This tendency is no- 
ticeable in the early foreign as well as English wi-iters — in Latimer, Brad- 
ford, Jewell, More, Brown, Bacon, Milton, and others. Coleridge has said, 
"Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar in point 
of style." 

t "1 was twenty years old," said Luther, "before I had even seen the Bi- 



INVENTION OF PRINTING. 



He opened it, and read with inexpressible delight the history 
of Hannah and her son Samuel. " O God !" he murmured, 
" could I but have one of these books, I would ask no other 
treasure I" A great revolution forthwith took place in his 
soul. He read, and studied, and meditated, until he fell se- 
riously ill. Dr. Staupitz, a man of rank in the Church, was 
then inspecting the convent at Erfurt, in w^hich Luther had 
been for two years. He felt powerfully attracted toward 
the young monk, and had much confidential intercourse with 
him. Before leaving, Staupitz presented Luther with a copy 
of the Bible — a Bible all to himself, which he could take with 
him to his cell and study there. " For several years," said 
Luther afterward, " I read the whole Bible twice in every 
twelvemonth. It is a great and powerful tree, each word of 
which is a mighty branch; each of these branches have I 
shaken, so desii'ous was I to learn what fruit they every one 
of them bore, and what they could give me."* 

This Bible of Luther's was, however, in the Latin Vulgate, 
a language known only to the learned. Several translations 
had been printed in Germany by the end of the fifteenth cen- 
tury; but they were unsatisfactory versions, unsuited for 
popular reading, and were comparatively little known. One 
of Luther's first thoughts, therefore, was to translate the Bi- 
ble into the popular speech, so that the people at large might 
have free access to the unparalleled book. Accordingly, in 
1521, he began the translation of the New Testament during 
his imprisonment in what he called his Patmos, the castle of 
Wartburg. It was completed and published in the follow- 
ing year ; and two years later his Old Testament appeared. 

ble. I had no notion that there, existed any other gospels or epistles than 
those in the service. At last I came across a Bible in the library at Erfurr, 
and used often to read it to Dr. Staupitz with still increasing wonder." — 
TiscHREDEN — Tahlc-Talk (Frankfort, 1568), p. 255, And again, ' ' Dr. Usin- 
ger, an Augustan monk, who was my preceptor at the convent of Erfurt, used 
r.o say to me, 'Ah! brother Martin, why trouble youi-self with the Bible? 
Rather read the ancient doctors, who have collected for you all its marrow 
and honey. The Bible itself is the cause of all our troubles.' " — Tischre- 

DEN, p. 7. * TiSCIIREDEN, p. 311. 



TEE ENGLISH BIBLE. 



l^one valued more than Luther did the invention of print- 
ing. " Printing," said he, " is the latest and greatest gift by 
which God enables us to advance the things of the Gospel." 
Printing was, indeed, one of the prime agents of the Refor- 
mation. The ideas had long been born, but printing gave 
them wings. Had the writings of Luther and his fellow-la- 
borers been confined only to such copies as could have been 
made by hand, they would have remained few in number, 
been extremely limited in their effects, and could easily have 
been suppressed and destroyed by authority. But the print- 
ing-press enabled them to circulate by thousands all over 
Germany.* Luther was the especial favorite of the printers 
and booksellers. The former took j>ride in bringing out his 
books with minute care, and the la,tter in cii-culating them. 
A large body of ex-monks lived by traveling about and sell- 
ing them all over Germany. They also flew abroad, into 
Switzerland, Bohemia, France, and England.f 

The printing of the Bible was also carried on with great 
activity in the Low Countries. Besides versions in French 
and Flemish for the use of the people in the Walloon prov- 
inces, where the new views extensively prevailed, various 
versions in foreign tongues were printed for exportation 
abroad. Thus Tyndale, unable to get Ms New Testament 
printed in England, where its perusal was forbidden, had the 
first edition printed at Antwerp m 1526,J as well as two sub- 

* At Nuremberg, at Strasburg, even at Mentz, there \vas a constant strug- 
gle for Luther's least pamphlets. The sheet, yet wet, was brought from the 
press under some one's cloak, and passed from shop to shop. The pedantic 
bookmen of the German trades-unions, the poetical tinmen, the literaiy shoe- 
makers, devoured the good news. Worthy Hans Sachs raised himself above 
his wonted commonplace ; he left his shoe half made, and with his most 
high-flown verses, his best productions, he sang, in under tones, " The Night- 
ingale of Wittenberg," and the song was taken up and resounded all over 
the land. — Miohelet — Life of Luther, 70, 71. 

t Works printed in Germany or in the Flemish provinces, where at first, 
the administration connived at the new religion, were imported into En- 
gland, and read with that eagerness and delight which always compensate 
the risk of forbidden studies. — Hallam — Hist, of England, i., p. 82. 

X A complete edition of the English Bible, translated partly by Tyndale 
and partly by Coverdale, was printed at Hamburg in 1535 ; and a second 
edition, edited by John Eogers, under the name of "Thomas Matthew," was 



24 INVENTION OF PRINTING. 

sequent editions at the same place. Indeed, Antwerp seems 
at that time to have been the head-quarters of Bible-print- 
ing. 'No fewer than thirteen editions of the Bible and twen- 
ty-four editions of the New Testament, in the Flemish or 
Dutch language, were printed there within the first thirty- 
six years of the sixteenth century, besides various other edi- 
tions in English, French, Danish, and Spanish.* 

An eager demand for the Scriptures had by this time 
sprung up in France. Several translations of poi-tions of the 
Bible appeared there toward the end of the fifteenth cen- 
tury ; but these were all superseded by a version of the en- 
tu-e Scriptures, printed at Antwerp, in successive portions, 
between the years 1512 and 1530. This translation was the 
work of Jacques le Fevre or Faber, of Estaples, and it form- 
ed the basis of all subsequent editions of the French Bible. 

The effects were the same wherever the Book appeared, 
and was freely read by the people. It was followed by an 
immediate reaction against the superstition, inclifferentism, 
and impiety which generally . prevailed. There was a sud- 
den awakening to a new religious life, and an anxious desire 
for a purer faith, less overlaid by the traditions, inventions, 
and corruptions which impaii-ed the efficacy, and obscured 
the simple beauty of Christianity. The invention of print- 
printed at Marlborow, in Hesse, in 1537. Tyndale sujffered martyrdom at 
Vilvovde, near Brussels, in 1536, yet he died in the midst of victory, for be- 
fore his death no fewer than fourteen editions of the New Testament, several 
of them of two thousand copies each, had been printed ; and at the very time 
that he died the first edition of the Scriptures printed in England was pass- 
ing through the press. Cranmer's Bible, so called because revised by Cran- 
mer, was published in 1539-40. In the year 1542, Henry VIII. issued a 
proclamation directing a large Bible to be set up in every parish church, 
while at the same time Bibles were authorized to be publicly sold. The 
Spencer collection contains copies of fifteen English editions of the Bible 
printed between 1536 and 1581, showing that the printing-press was by that 
time actively at work in England. Wycliflfe's translation, though made in 
1380, was not printed until 1731. 

* "There can be no sort of comparison," saj'S Mr. Hallam, " between the 
number of these editions, and consequently the eagerness of the people of the 
Low Countries for biblical knowledge, considering the limited extent of their 
language, and any thing that could be found in the i*rotestant states of the 
empire." — Literary History, i., 387. 



ECCLESIASTICAL ABUSES. 



ing had also its political effect^ ; and for men to be able to 
read books, and especially the Scriptures, in the common 
tongue, was itself a revolution. It roused the hearts of the 
people in all lands, producing commotion, excitement, and 
agitation. Society became electric, and was stirred to its 
depths. The sentiment of Right was created, and the long 
down-trodden peasants — along the Rhine, in Alsace, and Sua- 
bia — raised their cries on all sides, demanding freedom from 
serfdom, and to be recognized as Men. Indeed, this electric 
fervor and vehement excitement throughout society was one 
of the greatest difficulties that Luther had to contend with 
in guidiag the Reformation in Germany to a successful issue. 

The ecclesiastical abuses, which had first evoked the in- 
dignation of Luther, were not confined to Germany, but pre- 
vailed all over Europe. There were Tetzels also in France, 
where mdulgences were things of common traffic. Money 
must thus be raised, for the building of St. Peter's at Rome 
liad to be paid for. Each sin had its price, each vice its tax. 
There was a regular tariff for peccadilloes of every degree, 
up to the greatest crimes.* The Bible, it need scarcely be 
said, was at open war with this monstrous state of things ; 
and the more extensively it was read and its precepts be- 
came known, the more strongly were these practices con- 
demned. Hence the alarm occasioned at Rome by the rapid 
extension of the art of printing and the increasing cii'culation 
of the Bible. Hence also the prohibition of printing which 
shortly followed, and the burning of the printers who printed 
the Scriptures, as well as the persons who were found guilty 
of reading them. 

The first signs of the Reformation in France showed them- 
selves in the town of Meaux, about fifty miles northeast of 
Paris, and not far distant from the then Flemish frontier. It 

* The well-known book entitled Taxes of the Roman Chancer?/ sets forth the 
various crimes for which absolution might be given, and the price charged in 
each case. Numerous instances are quoted verbatim in Puaux — Histoire de 
la Reformation FranQaisc, i., 15. The book, it must be added, is now repudi- 
ated by Roman Catholics, though it was issued from the Komish press. • 



26 INVENTION OF PRINTING, 

was a place full of working-p*eople — mechanics, wool-carders, 
fullers, cloth-makers, and artisans. The proximity to Flan- 
ders, and the similarity of their trade to that of the larger 
Flemish towns, occasioned a degree of intercourse between 
them, which doubtless contributed to the propagation of the 
new views at Meaux, where the hearts of the poor artisans 
were greatly moved by the tidings of the Gospel which 
reached them from the North. 

At the same time, men of learning in the Church had long 
been meditating over the abuses which prevailed in it, and 
devising the best means for remedying them. Among the 
most earnest of these was Jacques Lefevre, a native of Eta- 
pies in Picardy. He was a man of great and acknowledged 
learning, one of the most distinguished professors in the Uni- 
versity of Paris. The study of the Bible produced the same 
effect upon his mind that it had done on that of Luther ; but 
he was a man of far different temperament — ^gentle, retiring, 
and timid, though no less devoted to the cause of truth. He 
was, however, an old man of seventy ; his life was fast fleet- 
ing ; yet here was a world lying in wickedness around him. 
What he could do he nevertheless did. He translated the 
four Gospels into French in 1523 ; had them printed at Ant- 
werp ; and put them into circulation. He found a faithful 
follower in Guillaume Farel — a young, energetic, and active 
man — who abounded in those qualities in which the aged 
Lefevre was so deficient. Another coadjutor shortly joined 
them — no other than Guillaume Bri9onnet, count of Mont- 
brun and bishop of Meaux, who also became a convert to the 
new doctrines. 

The bishop, on taking charge of his diocese, had been 
shocked by the disorders which prevailed there, by the li- 
centiousness of the clergy, and their general disregard for 
rehgious life and duty. As many of them were non-resident, 
he invited Lefevre, Farel, and others, to occupy their pulpits 
and preach to the people, the bishop preaching in his turn ; 
and the people flocked to hear them. The bisho]) also dis- 



REFORMATION AT MEAUX. 27 

tributed the four Gospels gratuitously among tlie poor, and 
very soon a copy was to be found in almost every workshop 
in Meaux. A reformation of manners shortly followed. 
Blasphemy, drunkenness, and disorder disappeared ; and the 
movement spread far and near. 

It must not be supposed, however, that the supporters of 
the old Church were indifferent to these proceedings. At 
first they had been stunned by the sudden spread of the new 
views and the rapid increase of the Gospellers, as they were 
called, throughout the northern provinces ; but they speedily 
rallied from theii- stupor. They knew that power was on 
their side — the power of kings and Parliaments, and their 
agents ; and these they loudly called to theii* help for the 
purpose of preventing the spread of heresy. At the same 
time, Rome, roused by her danger, availed herself of all meth- 
ods for winning back her wandering children, by force if not 
by suasion. The Inquisition was armed with new powers*, 
and wherever heresy appeared, it was crushed, unsparingly, 
unpityingly.' No matter what the rank or learning of the 
suspected heretic might be, he must satisfy the tribunal be- 
fore which he was brought, or die at the stake. 

The priests and monks of Meaux, though mostly absentees, 
finding their revenues diminishing, appealed for help to the 
Sorbonne, the Faculty of Theology at Paris, and the Sorbonne 
called upon Parliament at once to interpose with a strong 
hand. The result was, that the Bishop of Meaux was heavi- 
ly fined, and he shrank thenceforward out of sight, and ceased 
to give farther cause of offense. But his disciples were less 
pliant, and continued boldly to preach the Gosj)el. Jean 
Leclerc was burnt alive at Metz, and Jacques Pavent and 
Louis de Berguin on the Place de Gr^ve at Paris. Farel 
escaped into Switzerland, and there occupied himself in 
printing copies of Lefevre's IS^ew Testament, thousands of 
which he caused to be disseminated throughout France by 
the hands of peddlers. 

The Sorbonne then proceeded to make war against books 



28 INVENTION OF PRINTING. 

and the j^rinters of them. Bibles and New Testaments were 
seized wherever found, and burnt ; but more Bibles and Test- 
aments seemed to rise, as if by magic, from their ashes. The 
printers who were convicted of prmting Bibles were next 
seized and burnt. The Bourgeois de Paris* gives a detailed 
account of the human sacrifices offered up to ignorance and 
intolerance in that city during the six months ending June, 
1534, from which it appears that twenty men and one wom- 
an were burnt alive. One was a printer of tlie Rue Saint 
Jacques, found guilty of having " printed the books of Lu- 
ther." Another, a bookseller, was burnt for "having sold 
Luther." In the beginning of the following year, the Sor- 
bonne obtained from the king an ordinance, which was pro- 
mulgated on the 26th of February, 1535, for the suj)pression 
of printing ! 

But it was too late. The art was now full bom, and could 
no more be suppressed than light, or air, or life. Books had 
become a f>ublic necessity, and supplied a great public want ; 
and every year saw them multi23lying more abu-ndantly.f 

The same scenes were enacted all over France, wherever 
the Bible had penetrated and found followers. Li 1645 the 
massacre of the Yaudois of Provence was perpetrated, ac- 
companied by horrors which it is impossible to describe. 
Tliis terrible persecution, however, did not produce its m- 
tended effect, but, on the other hand, was followed by a 
strong reaction in the public mind against the fury of the 
persecutors. The king, Francis L, complained that his orders 

* MiCHELET says the Bourgeois de Pains (Paris, 1854) was not the publi- 
cation of a Protestant, which might be called in question, but of a "very 
zealous Catholic." — Histolre de France an Seiziime Siede,vni.,i)All. 

t It has been calculated (by Daunon, Petit, Rudel, Taillandier, and others) 
that by the end of the iifteonth century four millions of volumes had been 
printed, the greater part in folio ; and that between 1500 and 1536 eighteen 
more millions of volumes had been printed. After that it is impossible to 
number them. In 1533 there had already been eighteen editions of the Ger- 
man Bible printed at Witteraberg, thirteen at Augsburg, thirteen at Stras- 
l)urg, twelve at Basle, and so on. Schceffcr, in his Injiuence of Luther on 
Education, says that Luther's Catechism soon ran to 100,000 copies. Print- 
ing was at the same time making rapid strides in France, England, and the 
Low Countries. 



ORIGIN OF THE TERM HUGUENOT. 29 

had been exceeded ; but he was sick and almost dying at the 
time, and had not the strength to prosecute the assassuis. 

There was, however, a lull for a time in the violence of the 
persecutions, during which the new views made rapid prog- 
ress ; and men of rank, of learning, and of arms, ranged them- 
selves on the side of" The Religion." Then arose the Hugue- 
nots or French Protestants,* who shortly became so numer- 
ous as to constitute a considerable power in the state, and to 
exercise, during the next hundred years, a most important ki- 
fluence on the political history of France. 

The origin of the term Suguenot is extremely obscm-e. It 
was at first applied to them as a nickname, and, like the 
Gueux of Flanders, they assumed and bore it with pride. 
Some suppose the term to be derived from Huguon, a word 
used in Touraine to signify persons who walk at night in the 
streets — the early Protestants, like the early Christians, hav- 
ing chosen that time for their religious assemblies. Others 
are of opinion that it was derived from a French and faulty 
pronunciation of the German word Mdg&iiossen, or confeder- 
ates, the name given to those citizens of Geneva who entered 
into an alliance with the Swiss cantons to resist the attempts 
of Charles HI., duke of Savoy, against their liberties. The 
confederates were called Eignots, and hence, probably, the 
derivation of the word Huguenots. A third surmise is, that 
the word was derived from one Ungues^ the name of a Gene- 
vese Calvinist. 

Farther attempts continued to be made by Rome to check 
the progress of printing. In 1599, Pope Paul IV. issued the 
first Index Expurgatorius^ containing a list of the books ex- 
pressly prohibited by the Church. It included all Bibles 
printed in modem languages, of which forty-eight editions 
were enumerated ; while sixty-one printers were put under a 

* The followers of the new views called themselves at first Gospellers (from 
their religion being based on the reading of the Gospel), Religionaries, or 
Those of the Religion. The name Protestant was not applied to them until 
the end of the seventeenth centuiy, that term originally characterizing the 
disciples of the Lutheran Eefoi-mation in Germany. 



30 INVENTION OF PRINTING. 

general "ban, and all works of every description issued from 
their presses were forbidden. l^Totwithstanding, however, 
these and similar measures, such as the wholesale burning of 
Bibles wherever found, the circulation of the Scriptures rap- 
idly increased, and the principles of the Reformation more 
and more prevailed throughout all the northern nations. 



CHAPTER n. 

EPISODE rN" THE LIFE OF PALISSY. 

At the time when the remarkable movement we have rap- 
idly sketched was sweeping round the j5*ontiers of France, 
from Switzerland to Brabant, and men were every where 
listening with eagerness to the promulgation of the new 
ideas, there was wandering along the Rhine a poor artisan, 
then obscure, but afterward famous, who was seeking to 
earn a living by the exercise of his trade. He could glaze 
windows, mend fdrniture, paint a little on glass, di-aw por- 
traits rudely, gild and color images of the Yirgin, or do any 
sort of work requii'ing handiness and' dexterity. On an 
emergency he would even undertake to measure land, and 
was ready to turn Ms hand to any thing that might enable 
him to earn a living, and at the same time add to his knowl- 
edge and experience. This wandering workman was no 
other than Bernard Palissy — afterward the natural philoso- 
pher, the chemist, the geologist, and the artist — ^but more 
generally known as the great Potter. 

Fortunately for our present purpose, Palissy was also an 
author ; and though the works he left behin(i hiin are writ- 
ten in a quaint and simple style, it is possible to obtain from 
certain passages in them a more vivid idea of the times in 
which he lived, and of the trials and sufferings of the Gos- 
pellers, of whom he was one of the most illustrious, than 
from any other contemporary record. The life of Palissy, too, 
is eminently illustrative of his epoch ; and provided we can 
but accurately portray the life of any single man in relation 
to his epoch, then biography becomes history in its truest 
sense j for history, after all, is but accumulated biography. 



32 EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY. 

From the writings of Palissy,* then, we gather the follow- 
ing facts regarding this remarkable man's life and career. 
He was born about the year 1510, at La Chapelle Biron, a 
poor village in Perigord, where his father brought him up to 
his own trade of a glazier. The boy was by nature quick 
and ingenious, with a taste for drawing, designing, and dec- 
oration, which he turned to account in painting on glass and 
decorating images for the village churches in his neighbor- 
hood. Desirous of improving himself at the same time that 
he earned his living, he resolved on traveling into other dis- 
tricts and countries, according to the custom of skilled work- 
men in those days. Accordingly, so soon as his term of aj)- 
j)renticeship had expired, he set out upon his " wanderschaffc," 
at about the age of twenty-one. He first went into the coun- 
try adjacent to the Pyrenees; and his journeyings in those 
mountain districts awoke in his mmd that love for geology 
and natural history which he afterward pursued with so 
much zeal. After s*ettling for a time at Tarbes, in the High 
Pyrenees, he proceeded northward, through Languedoc, Dau- 
phiny, part of Switzerland, Alsace, the duchies of Cleves and 
Luxemburg, and the provinces of the Lower Rhine, to Ar- 
dennes and Flanders. 

It will be observed that Palissy's line of travel lay pre- 
cisely through the provinces in which the people had been 
most deeply moved by the recent revolt of Luther from 
Rome. In 151 7 the Reformer had publicly denounced the 
open sale of iidulgences " by the profligate monk Tetzel," 
and affixed his celebrated propositions to the outer pillars of 
the great church of Wittemberg. The propositions were at 
once printed in thousands, devoured, and spread abroad in 
every direction. In 1518 Luther appeared, under the safe- 
conduct of the Elector of Saxony, before the Pope's legate at 
Augsburg ; and in 1520 he publicly burnt the Pope's bull at 

* (Euvres Completes de Bernard Palissy, edition conforme aux textes orig- 
inaux imprimes du vivant de I'auteur ; avec des notes et une Notice Histori- 
que. Par Paul-Antoine Cap, Paris, 1844. 



PALISSY LEARNS TO READ. 



Wittemberg^ amid the acclamations of the people. All Ger- 
many was now in a blaze, and Luther's books and pamphlets 
were every where in demand. It was shortly after this time 
that Palissy passed through the excited provinces. Wher- 
ever he went he heard of Luther, the Bible, and the new rev- 
elation which it had brought to light. The men of his own 
class, with whom he most freely mixed in the course of his 
travels — artists, mechanics, and artisans* — were fiill of the 
new ideas which were stirring the heart of Germany. These 
were embraced with especial fervor by the young and the en- 
ergetic. Minds formed and grown old in the established 
modes of thought were unwilling to be disturbed, and satis- 
fied to rest as they were: "too old for change" was their 
maxim. But it was different with the young, the ardent, 
and the inquiring, who looked before rather than behind — to 
the future rather than the past. These were, for the most 
part, vehement in support of the doctrines of the Reformation. 
Palissy was then of an age at which the mind is most open 
to receive new impressions. He was, moreover, by nature a 
shrewd observer and an independent thinker, and he could 
not fail to be influenced by the agitation which stirred so- 
ciety to its depths. Among the many things which Palissy 
learned in the course of his travels was the art of reading 
printed books ; and one of 'the books which he learned to 
read, and most prized, was the printed Bible, the greatest 
marvel of his time. It was necessarily read in secret, for the 
ban of the Church was upon it ; but the prohibition was dis- 
regarded, and probably gave even an additional zest to the 
study of the forbidden book. Men recognized each other's 
love for it as by a secret sympathy ; and they gathered to- 
gether in workshops and dwellings to read and meditate over 
it, and exhort one another from its pages. Among these was 
Palissy, who, by the time he was thirty years old, had become 

* An old Eoman Catholic historian says, " Abore all, painters, watch- 
makers, sculptors, goldsmiths, booksellers, printers, and others, who. from 
their callings, have some nobility of mind, were among the first easily sur- 
prised." — Eemond — Histoire de VEerede de ce Siccle^ book vii.,931. 

c 



34 EPISODE IN. THE LIFE OF PALISSY. 

a follower of tlie Gospel, and a believer in the religion of the 
open Bible.* 

Palissy returned to France in 1539, at a time when perse- 
cution was at the hottest ; when printing had been suppress- 
ed by royal edict ; when the reading of the Bible was pro- 
hibited on pain of death, and when many were being burnt 
alive for reading and believing it. The persecution espe- 
cially raged in Paris and the neighborhood, which may ac- 
count for Palissy's avoidance of that city, where an artist so 
skilled as he was would naturally have desired to settle, and 
his proceediug to the remote district of Saintonge, in the 
southwest corner of France. There he married, and began 
to pursue his manifold callings, more particularly glass-paint- 
ing, portrait-painting, and land-measuring. He had a long 
and hard fight for life. His employment was fitful, and he 
was often reduced to great straits. Some years after his set- 
tlement at Saintes, while still struggling with poverty, chance 
threw in his way an enameled cup of Italian manufacture, of 
great beauty, which he had no sooner seen than he desired 
to imitate ; and from that time the determination to discover 
the art by which it was enameled possessed him like a passion. 

The story of Palissy's heroic ardor in prosecuting his re- 
searches in connection with this subject is well known : how 
he built furnace after furnace, and made experiments with 
them again and again, only to end in failure ; how he was all 
the while studying the nature of earths and clays, and learn- 
ing chemistry, as he described it, " with his teeth ;" how he 
reduced himself to a state of the most distressing poverty, 
which he endured amid the expostulations of his friends, the 

* We can not learn from Palissy's writings what his creed was. He never 
once mentions the names of either Luther or Calvin ; but he often refers to 
the "teachings of the Bible," and "the statutes and ordinances of God as 
revealed in his Word." Here, for example, is a characteristic passage : 

" Je n'ay trouve rien meilleur que suivre le conseil de Dieu, ses esdits, 
statuts et ordonnances: et en regardant quel cstoit son vouloir, j'ay trouve 
que, par testament dernier, il a commande h. ses heritiers qu'ils eussent h. 
manger le pain an labeur de leui's corps, et qu'ils eussent a multiplier les 
t^lens qu'ils leur avoit laissez par son testament." — Recepte V6-itabk, 1563. 



HIS PURSUIT OF TEE ENAMEL. 35 

bitter sarcasms of his neighbors, and, what was still worse to 
bear, the reproaches of his wife and children. But he was 
borne up throughout by his indomitable determination, his 
indefatigable industry, and his irrepressible genius. 

On one occasion he sat by his furnace for six successive 
days and nights without changing his clothes. He made ex- 
perunent after experiment, and still the enamel did not melt. 
At his last and most desperate experiment, when the fiiel be- 
gan to run short, he rushed into his house, seized and broke 
up sundry articles of furniture, and hurled them into the fur- 
nace to keep up the heat. No wonder that his wife and chil- 
dren, as well as his neighbors, thought the man had gone 
mad. Bnt he himself was in a measure compensated by the 
fact that the last great burst of heat had melted the enamel; 
for, when the common clay jars, which had been put in 
brown, were taken out after the furnace had cooled, they 
were found covered with the white glaze of which he had 
been so long and so furiously in search. By this time, how- 
ever, he had become reduced to a state of the greatest pov- 
erty. He had stripped his dwelling, he had beggared him- 
self, and his children wanted food. " I was in debt," said he, 
" at many places, and when two children were at nurse I was 
unable to pay the nurse's wages. No one helped me. On 
the contrary, people mocked me, saying, ^ He will rather let 
his children die of hunger than mind his own business.' " 
Others said of him that he was " seeking to make false 
money." These jeerings of the town's folk reached his ears 
as he passed along the streets of Saintes, and cut him to the 
heart. 

Like Brindley the engineer, Palissy betook himself to his 
bed to meditate upon his troubles, and study how to find a 
way out of them. " "When I had lain for some time in bed," 
says he, " and considered that if a man has fallen into a ditch 
his first duty is to try and raise himself out of it, I, being in 
like case, rose and set to work to paint some pictures, and by 
this and other means I endeavored to earn a little money. 



36 EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY. 

Then I said to myself that all my losses and risks were over, 
and there was nothiog now to hinder me from making good 
pieces of ware ; and so I began again, as before, to work at 
my old art."* But he was still very far from success, and 
continued to labor on for years amid misfortune, privation, 
and poverty. " All these failures," he continues, " occasioned 
me such labor and sadness of spirit that before I could ren- 
der my various enamels fusible at the same degree of heat, I 
was obliged, as it were, to roast myself to death at the door 
of the sepulchre ; moreover, m laboring at such wort, I found 
myself, in the space of about ten years, so worn out that I 
was shrunk almost to a skeleton ; there was no appearance of 
muscle on my arms or legs, so that my stockings fell about 
my feet when I walked abroad." 

His neighbors would no longer have patience with him, 
and he was despised and mocked by all. Yet he persevered 
with his art, and proceeded to make vessels of divers colors, 
which he at length began to be able to sell, and thus earned 
a slender maintenance for his family. " The hope which in- 
spired me," says he, " enabled me to proceed with my work, 
and when people came to see me I sometimes contrived to 
entertain them with pleasantry, while I was really sad at 
heart.. . . . Worst of all, the sufferings I had to endure 
were the mockeries and persecutions of those of my house- 
hold, who were so unreasonable as to expect me to execute 
work without the means of doing so. For years my furnaces 
were without any covering or protection, and while attend- 
ing to them I have been exposed for nights, at the mercy of 
the wind and the rain, without any help or consolation, save 
it might be the meauling of cats on the one side, and the 
howling of dogs on the other. Sometimes the tempest would 
beat so furiously against the fdmaces that I was compelled 
to leave them, and seek shelter within doors. Drenched by 
rain, and in no better plight than if I had been dragged 

*. Palissy— De VArtde Terre: OEuvres Completes, p. 318. 



HIS SUFFERINGS. 37 



through mire, I have gone to lie down at midnight, or at day- 
break, stumbling into the house without a light, and reeling 
from one side to another as if I had been drunken, my heart 
filled with sorrow at the loss of my labor after such long toil- 
ing. But, alas ! my home proved no reftige for me ; for, 
drenched and besmeared as I was, I found in my chamber a 
second persecution worse than the first, which makes me 
even now marvel that I' was not utterly consumed by my 
many sorrows."* 

In the midst of his great distress, religion came to Palissy 
as a consoler. He found comfort in recalling to mind such 
passages of the Bible as he carried in his memory, and which 
from time to time gave him fresh hope. " Ton will thus ob- 
serve," he afterward wrote, " the goodness of God to me : 
when I was in the depth of suffering because of my art. He 
consoled me with His Gospel ; and when I have been ex- 
posed to trials because of the Gospel, then it has been with 
my art that He has consoled me." When wandering abroad 
in the fields about Saintes, at the time of his greatest troub- 
les, Palissy's attention was wont to be diverted from his own 
sorrows by the wonderful beauty and infinite variety of na- 
ture, of which he was a close and accurate observer. What 
were his petty cares and trials in sight of the marvelous 
works of God, which spoke in every leaf, and flower, and 
plant, of His infinite power, and goodness, and wisdom? 
" When I contemplated these things," says Palissy, " I have" 
fallen upon my face, and, adoring God, cried to Him in spir- 
it, ' What is man, that Thou art mindful of him ? I^ot to us. 
Lord, not to us, but to Thy name be the honor and the glo- 
ry."'f 

There were already many followers of the Gospel in 
Saintes and the adjoining districts. It so happened that 
Calvin had, at an early period in his life, visited Saintonge, 
and sowed its seeds there. Calvin was a native of Noyon, 

* Palissy — De VArt de Terre: OEuvres Completes, p. 321. 
t Palissy — Recepte Veritable: CEuvres Completes, 116-17. 



EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY. 



in Picardy, and had from his childhood been destined for the 
priesthood. When only twelve years old he was provided 
with a benefice, but by the time he grew to man's estate a 
relative presented him with a copy of the Bible, and he be- 
came a religious reformer. He began, almost involuntarily, 
to exhort others from its pages, and proceeded to preach to 
the people at Bourges, at Paris, and in the adjoining dis- 
tricts, From thence he went into Poitou and Saintonge on 
the same errand, holding his meetings late at night or early 
in the morning, in retired places — in a cellar or a garret — in 
a wood or in the opening of a rock in a mountain-side ; a hol- 
low place of this sort, near Poitiers, in which Calvin and his 
friends secretly celebrated the Lord's Supper, being still 
known as " Calvin's Cave." 

We are not informed by Palissy whether he ever met Cal- 
vin in the course of his mission in Saintonge, which occurred 
shortly after the former had settled at Saintes ; but certain 
it is that he was one of the first followers and teachers of the 
new views in that neighborhood. Though too poor himself 
to possess a copy of the Bible, Palissy had often heard it read 
by others as well as read it himself while on his travels, and 
his retentive memory enabled him to carry many of its most 
striking passages in Ms mind,* which he was accustomed to 
reproduce in his ordinary speech. Hence the style of his 
early writings, which is strongly marked by Biblical terms 
^and similitudes. He also contrived to obtain many written 
extracts from the Old and New Testament, for the purpose 
of reading them to others, and they formed the texts from 
which he exhorted his fellow Gospellers. For Palissy was 
one of the earliest preachers of the Reformed Church in the 

* The Yaudois peasantry knew the Bible almost by heart. Raids were 
from time to time made into their district by the agents of the Romish 
Church for the pm-pose of seizing and burning all such copies of the Bible 
as they conld lay hands on. Knowing this, the peasants formed societies of 
young persons, each of whom was appointed to presei've in his memory a 
certain number of chapters ; and thus, though their Bibles were seized and 
burnt, the Vaudois were still enabled to refer to their Bibles through the 
memories of the young minds in which the chapters were preserved. 



EARLY GOSPELLERS OF SAINTES. 39 

town of Saintes, if he was not indeed its founder. In one of 
his earliest works* he gives an account of the origin of the 
movement, which is all the more interesting as being that of 
the principal actor in the transactions which he describes : 

" Some time before this, " says he, writing of the year 1557, "there was in 
this town a certain artisan, poor and miserable to the last degree, who had so 
great a desire for the advancement of the Gospel, that he spoke of it one day 
to another artisan as poor as himself, and who knew as little of it as he did, 
for both knew scarcely any thing. Nevertheless, the one urged upon the 
other that if he would but engage to make some sort of exhortation, great 
benefit might arise from it ; and though this last felt himself to be utterly 
destitute of knowledge, the advice gave him courage. So, some days later, 
he di'ew together one Sunday morning some nine or ten persons, and seeing 
that he was badly instructed in letters, he had extracted several passages 
from the Old and New Testament, having put them in writing. And when 
they had assembled he read to them the passages or authorities, saying, 'Let 
every one, as he has received good gifts, distribute them to others ;' and ' Ev- 
ery tree that beareth not fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire.' He 
also read another passage taken from Deuteronomy, wherein it is said, ' Thou 
shalt proclaim my law when seated in thy house, when walking by the way, 
when lying down, and when rising up.' He further px'opounded the parable 
of the talents, and cited a number of passages, making practical application 
of them ; and urging, first, that to every man appertains the right of speak- 
ing of the statutes and ordinances of God, to the end that his Word may not 
be set at naught, notwithstanding our unworthiness ; and, second, that cer- 
tain of his hearers should be incited to follow his example. Accordingly, 
they agreed together that six among them should exhort the others in rota- 
tion ; that is to say, that each should take his turn once in every six weeks, 
on Sundays only. And as they were undertaking a duty, for the due per- 
formance of which they had received no special instruction, it was arranged 
that they should put their exhortations in writing, and read them to the as- 
sembly. Now all these things were done in accordance with the good ex- 
ample, counsel, and doctrine of the worthy Philebert Hamelin.f 

* Palisst — Recepte Veritable, par laquelle tons les hommes de la France 
pourront apprendres a multiplier et augmenter leur thresors. — CEuvres Com- 
pletes, 106-7. 

t In a previous part of the treatise (RecepteV&itahle) in which the above 
passage occurs, Palissy gives an interesting account of Philebert Hamelin, one 
of the early martyrs to the Reformed faith in the south of France. Hame- 
lin, like Calvin, had been educated for the priesthood, and, like him, was con- 
verted to the new views by reading and studying the Bible. He joined the 
Calvinist Church at Geneva, where he learned the art of printing, and pro- 
ceeded to set up a press for the purpose of printing Bibles. 



40 EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY. 

" Such," continues Pali^y, " was the beginning of the Eeformed Church 
at Saintes. I am confident that when the members first began to meet they 
did not number more than five persons. While the church was thus small, 
and Master Philebert was in prison, there came to us a minister named De 
la Place, who had been sent to preach at Allevert ; but the procureur of Al- 
levert arrived at Saintes on the same day about the matter of the baptism 
celebrated by Philebert at the former place, on account of which many of the 



From that time Hamelin went about from place to place throughout 
Prance, selling Bibles and other religious books, and every where finding 
persons ready to help him in his work. The book-hawkers, or colporteurs^ 
were among the most active agents of the Eeformation. De Felice, in his 
History of the Protestants of France, says, " They were called bale-bearers, 
basket or literary carriers. They belonged to difierent classes of society ; 
many were students in theology, or even ministers of the Gospel. Staff in 
hand, basket on back, through heat and cold, by lonely ways, through mount- 
ain ravines and dreary morasses, they went from door to door, often ill re- 
ceived, always at the hazard of their lives, and not knowing in the morning 
where to lay their head at night. It was chiefly through them that the Bi- 
ble penetrated into the manor of the noble as well as the hut of the peasant." 

Of such was Philebert Hamelin, who expounded as well as sold the Bible- 
He frequently visited the town of Saintes, where he had several friends and 
disciples, of whom Palissy was one. Though feeble in frame, and suffering 
from ill health, Hamelin made all his jouraeys on foot. Friends offered to 
lend him their horses to ride on ; but he preferred walking alone and un- 
armed, merely with a staff in his hand, and thus he traveled into all parts 
without fear. 

At Hamelin's last visit to Saintes, some seven or eight of his friends re- 
ceived him, and after praying with them and counseling them to meet find 
exhort one another frequently, he set out on foot for Allevert. There he 
publicly preached to many people. He also publicly baptized an infant. 
This latter circumstance having come to the ears of the Bishop of Saintes, 
he required the magistrates immediately to pursue and apprehend Hamelin, 
who was shortly after taken at the house of a gentleman, and, to Palissy's 
horror and indignation, lodged in the common jail with thieves and malefac- 
tors. " He was so perfect in his walk," says Palissy, " that even his enemies 
themselves were constrained to acknowledge, though not approving of his 
doctrine, that his was a most pure and holy life. I am, indeed, quite amazed 
that any men should have dared to pronounce sentence of death upon him, 
seeing that they well knew, for they had heard, his godly conversation. No 
sooner was I informed of his imprisonment than I had the hardihood (peril- 
ous though the times then were !) to go and remonstrate with six of the prin- 
cipal judges and magistrates of the town of Saintes, that they had put in prison 
a prophet, an angel of God, sent to proclaim His message and the judgment 
of condemnation to men in these latter times, assuring them that during the 
eleven years I had known the said Philebert Hamelin he was of so pure and 
holy a way of life that it seemed to me that other men were altogether wick- 
ed compared with him." — Recepte V&itahh, 106. 

Palissy's remonstrances, made at the peril of his own life, were, however, 
of no avail. Hamelin was sent to Bordeaux in the custody of the provost- 
marshal. There he was tried for the fatal crime of heresy, sentenced to 
death, and— to use Palissy's words — "hanged like a common thief." 



FIRST CHURCH IN SAINTES. 41 

persons there present were liable to heavy penalties. This was the occasion 
of our taking the said De la Place to administer to us the Word of God, and 
he remained with us until Monsieur de la Boissiere came, who is our minis- 
ter at the present time.* But ours is indeed a pitiable case, for, although we 
have a good will, we have not the means of supporting ministers. De la 
Place, during the time he was with us, was principally maintained at the ex- 
pense of gentlefolks, who often kept him at their houses ; but fearing that our 
ministers might thereby be corrupted, Monsieur de la Boissiere was desired 
not to leave the town at the instance of the gentry, without leave, excepting 
in cases of emergency. Such being the case, the poor man was as closely 
confined as any prisoner ; very often he had to eat apples and drink water 
for his dinner, and to use his chemise in lieu of a table-cloth ; for there were 
very few people of any means who belonged to our little congregation, and 

we had not wherewithal to pay him his stipend 

"Thus was the church first set up among us by a few poor and despised 
people, with great difficulty, and amid many perils. Great was the detrac- 
tion we had to encounter from wicked and perverse calumniators. Some 
said if our doctrines were good we ought to preach them in public. Others 
alleged that we met in secret merely for purposes of wantonness, and that at 
our meetings the women were in common. Again, notwithstanding these 
unfounded scandals, God prospered our efforts so much, that although our 
assemblies were for thie most part held at midnight, and our enemies heard 
us passing along the streets, God kept them bi'idled in such sort that we "were 
preserved for a time under His protection. And when God willed that his 
Church should at length make a public manifestation in open day, then was 
a great work done in our town ; for though two of our principal men, who 
went to Toulouse, were unable to obtain permission for us to hold our assem- 
blies in public, we nevertheless had the courage to take the market-house for 
the purpose."! 

The meetings of the little congregation soon "became more 
popular in Saintes. The people of the toxm went at first out 
of curiosity to observe their proceedings, and were gradually- 
attracted by the earnestness of the worshipers. The mem- 
bers of" The Religion" were known throughout the town to 
be persons of blameless lives, peaceable, well-disposed, and 
industrious, who commanded the respect even of their ene- 

* The Recepte V^itabk, in which Palissy gives this account, is supposed 
to have been written by him in prison at Bordeaux, where he was confined 
for the crime of heresy, as will be hereafter explained, in the year 1559-60. 
The treatise was printed at La Eochelle in 1563. 

t Recepte Veritable, 106-9. 



42 EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY, 

mies. At lenojth the Roman Catholics of Saintes beoran to 
say to their monks and priests, " See these ministers of the 
new religion ; they make prayers ; they lead a holy life ; 
why can not you do the like ?" The monks and priests, not 
to be outdone by the men of The Religion, then began to 
pray and to preach like the ministers ; " so that in those 
days," to use the words of Palissy, " there were prayers daily 
in this town, both on one side and the other." So kindly a 
spu'it began to sprmg up under the operation of these influ- 
ences, that the religious exercises of both parties — of the old 
and the new religion — were for a short time celebrated in 
some of the churches by turns ; one portion of the people at- 
tending the prayers of the old church, and another portion 
the preaching of the new ; so that the Catholics, returning 
from celebrating the mass, were accustomed to meet the 
Huguenots on their way to hear the exhortation,* as is usual 
in Holland at this day. The effects of this joint religious ac- 
tion on the morals of the people are best described in Palis- 
sy 's own words : 

" The progress made by us was such, that in the course of a few years, by 
the time that our enemies rose up to pillage and persecute us, lewd plays, 
dances, ballads, gormandizings, and superfluities of dress and head-gear, had 
almost entirely ceased. Scarcely was any bad language to be heard on any- 
side, nor were there any more crimes and scandals. Lawsuits greatly di- 
minished ; for no sooner had any two persons of The Religion fallen out, 
than means were found to bring them to an agreement ; moreover, very 
often, before beginning any lawsuit, the one would not begin it before first 
exhorting the other. "When the time for celebrating Easter drew near, many 
differences, discussions, and quarrels were thus stayed and settled. There 
were then no questions among them, but only psalms, prayers, and spiritual 
canticles ;t nor was there any more desire for lewd and dissolute songs. 

* Alfred Dumjesnil — Bernard Palissy, Le Potier de Terra ; Paris, Gres- 
sart, p. 120. 

t The Reformers early enlisted music in their service, and it exercised 
a powerful influence in extending the new movement among the people. 
"Music," said Luther, "is the art of the prophets. It is one of the most 
magnificent and delightful presents that God has given us. Satan can not 
make head against music." Luther was a poet as well as a musician ; his 
Ein\feste Burg ist unser Gott (one of the themes of Meyerbeer's Htiguenots), 
which rang through all Germany, was the " Marseillaise" of the Eefoj-mation. 



SOCIAL REFORMATION IN SAINTES. 43 

Indeed, The Religion made such progress, that even the magistrates began 
to prohibit things that had grown up under their authority. Thus they for- 
bade, inn-keepers to permit gambling or dissipation tq be carried on within 
their premises, to the enticement of men away from their own homes and 
families. 

"In those days might be seen, on Sundays, bands of work-people walking 
abroad in the meadows, the groves, and the fields, singing psalms and spiiit- 
ual songs, or reading to and instructing one another. There might also be 
seen girls and maidens seated in gi'oups in the gardens and pleasant places, 
singing songs on sacred themes ; or boys accompanied by their teachers, the 
effects of whose instruction had already been so salutary, that those young 
persons not only exhibited a manly bearing, but a manful steadfastness of 
conduct. Indeed, these various influences, working one with another, had 
already effected so much good, that not only had the habits and modes of 
life of the people been reformed, but their very countenances themselves 
seemed to be changed and improved."* 

But this happy state of affairs did not last long. While 

the ministers of the new religion and priests of the old (with 

a few exceptions) were working thus harmoniously together 

at Saintes, events were rapidly drawing to a crisis in other 

parts of France. The heads of the Roman Catholic Church 

saw with alarm the rapid strides which the new religion was 

making, and that a large proportion of the population were 

day by day escaping from their control. Pope Pius lY., 

thi'ough his agents, urged the decisive interference of the 

• 
Luther had improved both the words and the music two days before his ap- 
pearance at the Diet of Worms. As he was journeying toward that city, 
he caught sight of its bell-towers in the distance, on which he rose up in his 
chariot and sang the noble song. * 

The French Reformers also enlisted music in their service at an early 
period. The psalms were translated by Clement Marot and Theodore de 
Beza, set to attractive music, and sung in harmony in family worship, in the 
streets and fields, and in congregational meetings. ■ During a lull in the 
persecution at Paris in 1558, thousands of persons assembled at the Pre-aux- 
Clercs to listen to the psalms sung by the men of "The Religion" as they 
marched along. But when the persecution revived, the singing of psalms 
was one of the things most strictly interdicted, even on pain of death. 

Calvin also, at Geneva, took great care to have the psalms set to good 
music. He employed, with that object, the best composers, and distributed 
printed copies of the music throughout all the churches. Thus psalmody, 
in which the whole people could join, every where became an essential part 
of the service of the Reformed Church ; the chants of the Roman Catholics 
having, until then, been sung only by the priests or by hii-ed performers. 

* Palissy — GEuvres Completes : Recepte Vdntahle, 108. 



44 EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY. 

secular authority to stay the progress of heresy ; and Philip 
n. of Spain supported him with all his influence. The Hu- 
guenots had, by virtue of their increasing numhers, become 
a political power ; and many of the leading politicians of 
France embraced the Reformed cause, not because they were 
impressed by the truth of the new views, but because they 
were capable of being used as an instrument for party war- 
fare. Ambitious men, opposed to the court party, arrayed 
themselves, on the side of the Huguenots, caring perhaps lit- 
tle for their principles, but mainly actuated by the desire of 
promoting their own personal ends. Thus political and re- 
ligious dissension combined together to fan the fury of the 
contending parties into a flame ; the councils of state became 
divided and distracted ; there was no controlling mediating 
power ; the extreme partisans were alike uncompromising ; 
and the social outbreak, long imminent, at length took place. 
The head of the Church in France alarmed the king with 
fears for his throne and his life. " If the secular arm," said 
the Cardinal de Lorraine, to Henry H.," fails in its duty, all 
the malcontents will throw themselves into this detestable 
sect. , They will first destroy the ecclesiastical power, after 
which it will be the turn of the royal power." The secular 
arm was not slow to strike. In 1559, a royal edict was pub- 
lished declaring the crime of heresy punishable by death, and 
forbidding the judges to remit or mitigate the penalty. The 
fires of persecution, which had long been smouldering, again 
burst forth all over France. The provincial Parliament insti- 
tuted Ghamhres ardeoites^ so called because they condemned 
to the fire all who were accused and convicted of the crime 
of heresy. Palissy himself has vividly narrated the effect of 
these relentless measures in his own district of Saintes : 

" The very thought of the evil deeds of those days," says he, "when wicked 
men were let loose upon us to scatter, overwhelm, ruin, and destroy the fol- 
lowers of the Reformed faith, fills my mind with horror. That I might be 
out of the way of their frightful and execrable tyrannies, and in order not to 
bft a witness of the cruelties, robberies, and murders perpetrated in this rural 



EMPLOYED BY MONTMORENCY. 



neighborhood, I concealed myself at home, remaining there for the space of 
two months. It seemed to me as if during that time hell itself had broken 
loose, and that raging devils had entered into and taken possession of the 
town of Saintes. Tor in the place where I had shortly before heard only 
psahns and spiritual songs, and exhortations to pure and honest living, I now 
heard nothing but blasphemies, assaults, threatenings, tumults, abominable 
language, dissoluteness, and lewd and disgusting songs, of such sort that it 
seemed to me as if all purity and godliness had become completely stifled and 
extingufshed. Among other horrors of the time, there issued forth from the 
Castle of Taillebourg a band of wicked imps who worked more mischief even 
than any of the devils of the old school. On their entering the town accom- 
panied by certain priests, with drawn swords in their hands, they shouted, 
'Where are they ? let us cut their throats instantly!' though they knew well 
enough that there was no resistance to them, those of the Reformed Church 
having all taken to flight. To make matters worse, they met an innocent 
Parisian in the street, reported to have money about him, and him they set 
upon and killed without resistance, first stripping him to his shirt before 
putting him to death. Afterward they went from house to house, stealing, 
plundering, robbing, gormandizing, mocking, swearing, and uttering foul 
lemies both against God and man."* 



During the two months that Palissy remained secluded at 
home, he busily occupied himself in perfecting the secret of 
the enamel, after which he had been so long in search. For, 
notwithstanding his devotion to the exercises of his religion, 
he continued to devote himself with no less zeal to the prac- 
tice of his art ; and his fame as a potter already extended 
beyond the bounds of his district. He had, indeed, been so 
fortunate as by this time to attract the notice of a powerful 
noble, the Duke of Montmorency, Constable of France, then 
engaged in building the magnificent chateau of Ecouen, at 
St. Denis, near Paris. Specimens of Palissy's enameled tiles 
had been brought under the duke's notice, who admired them 
so much that he at once gave Palissy an order to execute the 
pavement for his new residence. He even advanced a sum 
of money to the potter, to enable him to enlarge his works, 
so as to complete the order with dispatch. 

Palissy's opinions were of course well known in his dis- 
* Palissy — OEuvres Completes: Recepte Veritable, 111. 



46 EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY. 

trict, where lie had been the founder, and was in a measure 
the leader, of the Reformed sect. The duke was doubtless 
informed of the danger which his potter ran on the outbreak 
of the persecution, and accordingly used his influence to ob- 
tain a safeguard for him from the Duke of Montpensier, who 
then commanded the royal army in Saintonge. But even 
this protection was insufficient ; for, as the persecution wax- 
ed hotter, and th-e search for heretics became keener, Palissy 
found his workshop no longer safe. At length he was seized, 
dragged from his home, and hurried off by night to Bor- 
deaux, to be put upon his trial for the crime of heresy. And 
this first great potter of France — this true man of genius, 
religion, and virtue — would certainly have been tried and 
burnt, as hundreds more were, but for the accidental circum- 
stance that the Duke of Montmorency was in urgent want 
of enameled tiles for his castle floor, and that Palissy was 
the only man in France capable of executing them. 

In the epistle dedicatory to the Recepte Veritable^ Palissy, 
addressing the duke, says, with much apparent simplicity, 
" I assure you, in all truth, that my enemies have really no 
cause against me, except that I have many times shown them 
certain passages of Scripture, wherein it is written that he is 
miserable and accursed who drinks the milk, and clothes 
himself with the wool of the flock, but gives them no pas- 
ture. And although my doing so ought to have incited them 
to love me, it only had the effort of inducing them to de- 
stroy me as a malefactor."* It is not improbable that the 

* In his prefatory address to "the reader" he also says: "Je voudrois 
prier la noblesse de France, ausquels le pourtrait pourroit beaucoup seruir, 
qu' apres que j'auray' employe mon temps pour leur faire service, qu'ils leur 
plaise ne me rendre mal pour bien, comme ont fait les Ecclesiastiques Ro- 
mains de cette ville, lesquels m'ont voulu faire pendre pour leur avoir pour- 
chasse le plus grand bien que iamais leur pourroit aduenir, qui est pour les 
avoir voulu inciter a paistre leur troupeaux suivant le commandement de 
Dieu. Et sauroit-on dire que iamais ie leur eusse fait aucun tort ? Mais 
parce que ie leur auois remonstre leur perdition au dixhuitieme de I'Apoca- 
lypse, tendant a fin de une authorite escrite au prophete leremie, ou il dit : 
Malediction sur vous, Pasteurs, qui mangez le lait et vestissez la laine, et 
laissez mes brebis esparses par les montagnes ! Ie les redemanderay de nos- 
tre main. Eux voyans telle chose, au lieu de s'amender, ils se sont eudur- 



PALISSY IMPRISONED A T BORDEA UX. 4-7 

sending of Palissy to Bordeaux, to ba tried there instead of 
at Saintes, was a ruse on the part of the Duke of Montpen- 
sier, to gain time until the Constable could be informed of 
the danger which threatened the life of his potter ; for Palis- 
sy adds, " It is a certain truth that, had I been tried by the 
judges of Samtes, they would have caused me to die before 
I could have obtained from you any help." He proceeds : 

' ' I would have taken very good care not to have fallen into the sanguin- 
ary hands of my enemies, had it not been that I relied upon their having 
respect for your work on which I was engaged, as well as on the protection 
of my lord the Duke of Montpensier, who gave me a safeguard, prohibiting 
them from taking notice of or interfering with me, or with my house, well 
knowing, as he did, that no one could execute your tiles but myself. So, 
beiiig in their hands a prisoner, the Seigneur de Burie, the Seigneur de Jar- 
nac, and the Seigneur de Fonts made every effort toward my deliverance, 
in order that your work might be completed. Nevertheless, my enemies 
sent me by night to Bordeaux by roundabout roads, having no regard either 
for your dignity or your desires. This I found very strange, seeing that the 
Count Rochefoucauld, although for the time he took the part of your adver- 
saries, nevertheless felt so much pride in your honor that he did not wish 
any other work than youi's to be proceeded with in my pottery, because of 
your commands; while my persecutors, on the contraiy, had no sooner 
made me prisoner than they broke into my workshop and made a public 
place of part thereof, for they had come to a resolution in the Maison de 
Ville to raze my work to the ground, though it had been partly erected at 
your expense ; and this resolution they would have carried out had it not 
been that the Seigneur de Fonts and his lady entreated the aforesaid per- 
sons not to commit such an outrage. I have set down all these things in 
writing in order that you may see that I was not committed to prison as a 
thief or a murderer. I know that you will bear these things in remembrance 
both as to time and place, seeing that yonr work must cost you much more 
than it otherwise would have done, through the injury you have sustained 
in my person ; nevertheless I hope that, following the counsel of God, you 
will render good for evil, which is my desire, while for my part I will en- 



cis, et se sont bandez contre la lumiere, k fin de cheminer le surplus de leurs 
iours en tenebres, et ensuy vans leurs voluptez et desirs charnels accoustu- 
mez, le n'eusse iamais pense que par la ils eussent voulu prendre occasion 
de me faire mourir. Dieu m'est temoin que le mal qu'ils m'ont fait n'a estc 
pour autre occasion que pour la susdite. Ce neantmoins, ie prie Dieu qu'ils 
les veuille amender." — Preface, p. 11, 12. 



48 EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY. 

deavor to the best of my power to repay the many benefits which you have 
been pleased to confer upon me."* 

To return to the narrative. No sooner did Montmorency 
hear of the peril into which his potter had fallen, and find 
that unless he bestirred himself Palissy would be burnt and 
his tiles for Ecouen remain unfinished, than he at once used 
his influence with Catharine de Medicis, the queen-mother, 
with whom he was then all-powerful, and had him forthwith 
appointed "Inventor of Rustic Figulines to the King." This 
appointment had the immediate efiect of withdrawing Palis- 
sy from the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Bordeaux, and 
. transferrmg him to that of the Grand Council of Paris, which 
was tantamount to an indefinite adjournment of his case. 
The now royal potter was accordingly released from prison, 
and returned to Saintes to find his workshop roofless and de- 
vastated. He at once made arrangements for leaving the 
place ; and, shaking the dust of Saintes from his feet, he 
shortly after removed to the Tuileriesf at Paris, where he 
long continued to carry on the manufacture of his famous 
pottery. 

It is not necessary to pursue the career of Palissy farther 
than to add that the cu'cumstance of his being employed by 
the bigoted Catharine de Medicis had not the slightest effect 
in inducing him to change his religion. He remained a 
Huguenot, and stoutly maintained his opinions to the last — 
so stoutly, indeed, that toward the close of his life, when an 
old man of seventy-eight, he was again arrested as a heretic 
and imprisoned in the Bastile. He was threatened with 
death unless he recanted. But, though he was feeble, and 
trembling on the verge of the grave, his spirit was as brave 
as ever. He was as obstinate now in holding to his religion 
as he had been more than thirty years before in hunting out 

* Preface to Recepte Veritable, addressed by Palissy to "Monseigneur le 
Due de Montmorency, Pair et Connestable de France." 

t Tuileries — so called from the tile-works originally established there by 
Francis I. in 1518. 



IMPRISONED IN THE BASTILE. 49 

the secret of the enamel. Mathieu de Launay, minister of 
state, one of the sixteen members of council, insisted that 
Palissy should be publicly burnt ; but the Due de Mayenne, 
who protected him, contrived to protract the proceedings 
and delay the sentence. 

The French historian D'Aubign^, in his Unwersal History^ 
describes Henry m. as visiting Palissy in person, with the 
object of inducing him to abjure his faith. " My good man," 
said the king, " you have now served my mother and myself 
for forty-five years. We have put up with your adhering to 
your religion amid fires and massacres. But now I am so 
pressed by the Guise party, as well as by my own people, 
that I am constrained to leave you in the hands of your ene- 
mies, and to-morrow you will be burnt unless you become 
converted." " Sire," answered the unconquerable old man, 
" I am ready to give my life for the glory of God. You have 
said many times that you have pity on me ; now I have pity 
on you, who have pronounced the words ' I am constrained.' 
It is not spoken like a king, sire ; it is what you, and those 
who constrain you, the Guisards and all your people, can 
never effect upon me, for I know how to die." 

Palissy was not burnt, but died in the Bastile, after about 
a year's imprisonment, courageously persevering to the end, 
and glorymg in being able to lay down his life for his faith. 
Thus died a man of truly great and noble character, of irre- 
pressible genius, indefatigable industry, heroic endurance, 
and inflexible rectitude — one of France's greatest and no- 
blest sons. 

D 



CHAPTER m. 

PEESECTJTIO]S"S OF THE REFORMED LN" PEAKCE AISTD 
FLANDERS. 

Palisst was not the only man of genius in France who 
embraced the Reformed faith. The tendency of books and 
the Bible was to stimulate inquiry on the part of all who 
studied them ; to extend the reign of thought, and emanci- 
pate the mind from the dominion of mere human authority. 
Hence we find such men as Peter Ramus and Joseph Justus 
^ Scaliger, the philosophers ; Charles Dumoulin, the jurist ; Am- 
Q brose Pare, the surgeon; Henry Stephens (or Estienne), the 
^ X printer and scholar;* Jean Goujon, the sculj^tor; Charles 
flC S Goudimel, the musical composer ; and Oliver de Serre, the 
S ^ agriculturist, were all Protestants. These were among the 
E LU very first men of their time in France. 

2 Persecution did not check the spread of the new views ; on 

^ the contrary, it extended them. The spectacle of men and 
Li women publicly sufiering death for their faith, expiring under 
the most cruel tprtures rather than deny their convictions, 
attracted the attention even of the incredulous. Theii- curi- 
osity was roused ; they desired to learn what there was in 
the forbidden Bible to inspire such constancy and endurance ; 
and they too read the book, and in many cases became fol- 
lowers of The Religion. 

Thus the new views spread rapidly all over France. They 
not only became established in all the large towns, but pene- 
trated the rural districts, more especially in the south and 

* The Stephenses, being threatened with persecution by the Sovbonne be- 
cause of the editions of the Bible and New Testament printed by them, were 
under the necessity of leaving Paris for Geneva, where they settled, and a 
long succession of illustrious scholars and printers handed down the reputa- 
tion of the family. 



MEETING OF THE STATES- GENERAL. 51 

southeast of France. Tlie social misery which pervaded 
those districts doubtless helped the spread of the new doc- 
trines among the lower classes ; for " there was even more 
discontent abroad," said Brantome, "than Huguenotism." 
But they also extended among the learned and the wealthy. 
The heads of the house of Bourbon, Antoine, duke of Yen- 
dome, and Louis, prince of Conde, declared themselves in 
favor of the new views. The former became the husband 
of the celebrated Jeanne D'Albret, queen oflSTavarre, daugh- 
ter of the Protestant Margaret of Yalois, and the latter be- 
came the recognized leader of the Huguenots. The head of 
the Coligny family took the same side. The Montmorencies 
were divided ; the Constable halting between the two opin- 
ions, waiting to see which should prove the stronger ; while 
others of the family openly sided with the Reformed. In- 
deed it seemed at one time as if France were on the brink of 
becoming Protestant. In 1561 the alarmed Cardinal de 
Sainte-Croix wrote to the Pope, " The kingdom is already 
half Huguenot." 

When Charles IX. succeeded to the throne in 1560, he was 
a boy only ten years old, and entii-ely under the control of 
Catharine de Medicis, his mother. The finances of the king- 
dom were found to be in a deplorable state, and the public 
purse was almost empty. Society was distracted by the 
feuds of the nobles, over whom, as in Scotland about the 
same period, the monarch exercised no effective control. 

France had, however, her Parliament or States-General, 
which in a measure placed the king's government en rapport 
with the nation. On its assembling in December, 1660, the 
Chancellor de L'Hdpital exhorted men of all parties to rally 
round the young king; and, while condemning the odious 
punishments which had recently been inflicted on persons of 
the Reformed faith, he announced the intended holding of a 
national council, and expressed the desire that thencefor- 
ward France should recognize neither Huguenots nor Pa- 
pists, but only Frenchmen. 



52 PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED. 

This was the first utterance of the voice of conciliation. 
The Protestants heard it with joy, their enemies with rage. 
Jean QuiatiQ, the rej^resentative of the clergy, demanded that 
measures should he taken to deliver France from heresy, and 
that Charles IX. should vindicate his claim to the title of 
" Most Christian King." Lange, the spokesman of the Tiers 
Etat, on the other hand, declared against " the three principal 
vices of the ecclesiastics — pride, avarice, and ignorance," and 
urged that they should return to the simplicity of the primi- 
tive Church. The nobles, divided among themselves, de- 
manded, some that the preaching of the Gospel should be 
forbidden, and others that there should be general freedom 
of worship ; but all who spoke were unanimous in acknowl- 
edging the necessity for a reform in the discipline of the 
Church.* 

While the state of religion thus occupied the deputies, an 
equally grave question occupied the court. There was no 
money in the exchequer ; the rate of interest was twelve per 
cent., and forty-three millions of francs were required to be 
raised fi:om an impoverished nation. The deputies were 
alarmed at the appalling figure which the chancellor speci- 
fied, and, declaring that they had not the requisite power to 
vote the required sum, they broke up amid agitation, leaving 
De L'Hopital at variance with the Parliament, which refused 
to register the edict of amnesty to the Protestants which the 
king had proclaimed. 

The king's minister was, however, desirous of bringing all 
parties to an agreement, if possible, and especially of allaying 
the civil discord which seemed to be fast precipitating France 
into civil war. He accordingly, with the sanction of the 
queen-mother, arranged for a conference between the heads 
of the religious parties, which took place at Yassy, in the 
presence of the king and his court, in August, 1561. Pope 
Pius VT. was greatly exasperated when informed of the in- 
tended conference, and declared himself to have been betray- 
* PuAUX— ^'iVtoire de la Reformation Frangaise, ii., 82. 



A CONFERENCE HELD. 53 

ed by Catharine de Medicis.* The granting of such a confer- 
ence was a recognition of the growing power of heresy in 
France — the same heresy which had akeady deprived Rome 
of her dominion over the mind of England and half Germany. 
The Pope's fears were, doubtless, not wifhout foundation ; 
and had France at that juncture possessed a Eiiox or a Lu- 
ther — a Regent Murray or a Lord Burleigh — the results 
would have been widely different. But as it was, the Re- 
formed party had no better leader than the scholarly and 
pious Theodore de Beza ; and the conference had no other 
result than to drive the contending parties more widely 
asunder than before. 

Although a royal edict was published m January, 1562, 
guaranteeing to the Protestants liberty of worship, the con- 
cession was set at defiance by the Papal party, whose leaders 
urged on the people in many districts to molest .and attack 

* PuAux (ii., 98) quotes a remarkable letter written at this time by Cath- 
arine de Medicis to the Pope, defending herself for having sanctioned the 
conference, and urging the necessity for a reform in the Church. "The 
number of those who have separated themselves from the Roman Church," 
she said, "is so great that they can no longer be restrained by severity of 
law or force of arms. They have become so powerful by reason of the no- 
bles and magistrates who have joined the party, they are so firmly united, 
and daily acquire such strength, that they are becoming more and more for- 
midable in all parts of the kingdom. In the mean time, by the grace of 
God, there are among them neither Anabaptists nor libertines, nor any par- 
tisans of odious opinions. All admit the twelve articles of the Creed as they 
have been explained by Pius III. and the oecumenical councils. Thus many 
of the most zealous Catholics believe that it is not necessary to curtail the 
communion of the Church, although they think differently on other points, 
wherein they consider change may be tolei'ated, and which might be a step 
toward the reunion of the Greek with the Latin Church. Many persons of 
great piety indulge the hope that if they can terminate in some such manner 
the differences of religion, God, who always helps his people, will dissipate 
the darkness, and make his light and truth to shine in the eyes of all men." 
The queen-mother farther proceeded.to specify the abuses which had crept 
into public worship in the Church, and requested the Pope to banish the use 
of the Latin tongue. "If the people do not understand what is said," she 
observed, with much reason, "how can they intelligently respond with the 
'Amen' or ' Ainsi soit-il ?' " The Pope concealed his indignation on receipt 
of this letter, but dispatched as his legate to Paris the Cardinal de Perrara, 
of infamous origin, grandson of Roderic Borgia, and son of Roderic's daugh- 
ter Lucretia. The papal legate had usually been welcomed at Paris by the 
ringing of all the church-bells, but on this occasion it was matter of general 
remark that the bells were mute. 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED, 



the followers of the new faith. The Papists denounced the 
heretics, and cialled upon the government to extirpate them ; 
the Huguenots, on their part, denounced the corruptions of 
the Church, and demanded their reform. There was no 
dominant or controlling power in the state, which drifted 
steadily in the direction of civil war. Both parties began 
to arm ; and in such a state of things a spark may kindle a 
conflagration. The queen -mother, though inclining to the 
side of the Reformed, did not yet dare to take a side ; but 
she sounded Coligny as to the number of followers that he 
could, in event of need, place at the service of the king. His 
answer was, " We have two thousand and fifty churches, and 
four hundred thousand men able to bear arms, without tak- 
ing into account our secret adherents.* Such was the criti- 
cal state of affairs when matters were precipitated to an is- 
sue by the action of the Duke of Guise, the leader of the 
Catholic party. 

On Christmas day, 1562, the Protestants of Yassy, in 
Champagne, met to the number of about three thousand, to 
listen to the preaching of the Word, and to celebrate the 
sacrament accordmg to the practice of theh* Church. Yassy 
was one of the possessions of the Guises, the mother of whom, 
Antoinette de Bourbon, an ardent Roman Catholic, could not 
brook the idea of the vassals of the family daring to profess 
a faith different from that of theii- feudal superior. Com- 
plamt had been made to her grace, by the Bishop of Chalons, 
of the offense done to religion by the proceedings of the peo- 
ple of Yassy, and she threatened them, if they persisted in 
their proceedings, with the vengeance of her son, the Duke 
of Guise. 

Undismayed by this threat, the Protestants of Yassy con- 
tinued to meet publicly and listen to their preachers, be- 
lieving themselves to be under the protection of the law, ac- 
cording to the terms of the royal edict. On the 1st of 
March, 1563, they h,eld one of their meetings, at which about 

* Mimoires de Cond6, ii., 587. 



MASSACRE OF VASSY. 55 

twelve hundred persons were present in a large bam which 
served for a church. The day before, the Duke of Guise, ac- 
companied by the duchess his wife, the Cardinal of Guise, 
and about two hundred men armed with arquebuses and 
poniards, set out for Vassy. They rested during the night 
at Dampmarten, and next morning marched direct upon the 
congregation assembled in the barn. The minister, Morel, 
had only begun his opemng prayer, when two shots were 
fired at the persons on the platform. The congregation tried 
in vain to shut the doors; the followers of the Duke of Guise 
burst in, and precipitated themselves on the unarmed men, 
women, and children. For an hour they fired, hacked, and 
stabbed among them, the duke coolly watching the carnage. 
Sixty persons of both sexes^ were left dead on the spot, more 
than two hundred were severely wounded, and the rest con- 
trived to escape. After the massacre the duke sent for the 
local judge, and severely reprimanded him for having per- 
mitted the Huguenots of Vassy thus to meet. The judge 
intrenched himself behind the edict of the king. The duke's 
eyes flashed with rage, and, striking the hilt of his sword 
with his hand, he said, " The sharp edge of this will soon cut 
your edict to pieces."* 

The massacre of Yassy was the match applied to the 
charge which was now ready to explode. It was the signal 
to Catholic France to rise in mass against the Huguenots. 
The clergy glorified the deed from the pulpit, and compared 
the duke to Moses, in ordering the extermination of all who 
had bowed the knee to the golden calf A fortnight later 
the duke entered Paris in triumph, followed by about twelve 
hundred noblemen and gentlemen, mounted on horses richly 
caparisoned. The provost of merchants went out to meet 
and welcome him at the Porte Saint-Denis, and the people 
received him with immense acclamations as the defender of 
the faith and the savior of the country. 

Theodore de Beza, overwhelmed with grief, waited on his 
* Davila — Hisioire des Guerres Civiks de France, liv. ii., p. 379. 



56 PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED. 

majesty to complain of tlie gross violation of tlie terms of 
the royal edict of wMcli the Guise party had been guilty. 
But the king and the queen-mother were powerless amid the 
whirlwind of excitement which prevailed throughout Paris. 
They felt that theii- own lives were not safe, and they at 
once secretly departed for Fontainebleau. The Duke of 
Guise followed them, accompanied by a strong escort. Ar- 
rived there, and admitted to an interview, the duke repre- 
sented to Catharine that, in order to prevent the Huguenots 
obtaining possession of the king's person, it was necessary 
that he should accompany them to Melun, but the queen- 
mother might remain if she chose. She determined- to ac- 
company her son. After a brief stay at Yincennes, the court 
was again installed in the Louvre on the 6th of April. The 
queen-mother was vanquished. 

The court waverers and the waiters on fortune at once ar-* 
rayed themselves on the side of the strong. The old Con- 
stable de Montmorency, who had been halting between the 
two opinions, signalized his readlierence to the Church of 
Rome by a . characteristic act. Placmg himself at the head 
of the mob, whose idol he was ambitious to be, he led them 
to the storming of the Protestant church outside the Porte 
Saint-Jacques, called the " Temple of Jerusalem." Burst- 
ing in the doors of the empty place, they tore uj) the seats, 
and, placing them and the Bibles in a pile upon the floor, 
they set the whole on fire, amid great acclamations. After 
this exploit the Constable made a sort of triumphal entry 
into Paris, as if he had won some great battle. ISTot con- 
tent, he set out on the same day to gather more laurels at 
the village of Popincourt, where he had the Protestant 
church there set on fire ; but the conflagration extending to 
the adjoining houses, many of them were also burnt down. 
For these two great exploits, however, the Constable, if we ex- 
cept the acclamations of the mob, received no other acknowl- 
edgment than the nickname of" Captain Burnbenches !"* 
* M£m<Ares de Condi, iii., p. 187. 



THE ICONOCLASTS BROKE LOOSE, 57 

More appalling, however, than the burning of churches, 
were the massacres which followed that of Yassy all over 
France — at Paris, at Senlis, at Amiens, at Meaux, at Chalons, 
at TroyeSj at Bar-sur-Seine, at Epernay, at Nevers, at Mans, 
at Angers, at Blois, and many other places. At Tours the 
number of the slain was so great that the banks of the Lou-e 
were almost covered with the corpses of men, women, and 
children. The persecution especially raged in Provence, 
where the Protestants were put to death after being sub- 
jected to a great variety of tortures.* Any detail of these 
events would present only a hideous monotony of massacre. 
We therefore pass them by. 

The Huguenots, taken unawares, were at first unable to 
make head against their enemies. But the Prince of Conde 
took the field, and numbers at once rallied to his standard. 
Admiral Coligny at first refused to join them, but, yielding 
to the entreaties of his wife, he at length placed himself by 
the side of Conde. A period of fierce civil war ensued, in 
which the worst passions were evoked on both sides, and 
fi-ightful cruelties were perpetrated, to the shame of religion, 
in whose name these things were done. The Huguenots re- 
venged themselves on the assassins of their co-religionists 
by defacing and destroying the churches and monasteries. 
In their iconoclastic rage they hewed and broke the images, 
the carvings, and the richly-decorated work of the cathe- 
drals at Bourges, at Lyons, at Orleans, at Rouen, at Caen, at 
Tours, and many other places. They tore down the cruci- 
fixes, and dragged them through the mud of the streets. 
They violated the tombs alike of saints and sovereigns, and 
profaned the shriues which were the most sacred in the eyes 
of the Roman Catholics. " It was," says Henri Martin, " as 
if a blast of the infernal trumpet had every where awakened 

* PuAux, ii., p. 152. This writer says that although the massacre of 
Saint Bartholomew is usually cited as the culminating hon*or of the time, 
the real Saint Bartholomew was not that of 1572, but of 1562 — which year 
contains by far the most dolorous chapter in the history of French Protest- 
antism. 



58 PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED. 

the spirit of destruction, and the delirious fury grew and be- 
came drunk with its own excess." All this rage, however, 
was but the inevitable reaction against the hideous cruelties 
of which the Huguenots had so long been merely the passive 
victims. They decapitated beautiful statues of stone, it is 
true, but the Guises had decapitated the living men. 

It is not necessary, in our rapid sketch, to follow the course 
of the civil war. The Huguenots were every where outnum- 
bered. They fought bravely, but they fought as rebels, the 
king and the queen-mother being now at the head of the 
Guise party. In nearly all the great battles fought by them, 
they were defeated — at Dreux,* at St. Denis, at Jarnac, and 
at Montcontour. But they always rallied again, sometimes 
in greater numbers than before ; and at length Coligny was 
enabled to collect such re-enforcements as seriously to threat- 
en Paris. France had now been devastated throughout by 
the contending armies, and many of the provinces were re- 
duced almost to a state of desert. The combatants on both 
sides were exhausted, though their rancor remained unabat- 
ed. Peace, however, had at last become a necessity; and a 
treaty was signed at St. Germain's in 1570, by which the 
Protestants were guaranteed liberty of worship, equality be- 
fore the law, and admission to the miiversities, while the four 
principal towns of Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La Cha- 
rite were committed to them as a pledge of safety. Under 
the terms of this treaty France enjoyed a state of quiet for 
about two years, but it was only the quiet that preceded the 
outbreak of another storm. 

At the famous Council of Trent, which met in 1545, and 

* This was nearly a drawn battle ; and that it was decided in favor of the 
Guise party was almost entirely due to the Swiss infantry, who alone i-esisted 
the shock of Conde's cavalry. When Conde and Coligny withdrew their 
forces in good order, 8000 men lay dead on the field. Montluc, 'one of the 
Guise generals, says, in his Commentaries, "If this battle had been lost, 
what would have become of France ? Its government would have been 
changed as well as its religion, for with a young king parties can do what 
they will." "When the news of the victoiy reached the Council of Trent, then 
sitting, it occasioned the prelates as much joy as when they had heard of the 
death of Luther. 



MEETING OF CATHARINE AND ALVA. 59 

continued its sittings for sixteen years, during which the 
events thus rapidly described were in progress, the laws of 
the 'Roman Catholic Church were carefully codified, and 
measures were devised for the more effectual suppression of 
heresy wherever it showed itself Shortly after the close of 
the council sittings, an interview took place at Bidassoa, on 
the frontier of Spain, between Catharine de Medicis, the 
queen-mother, and the Duke of Alva, the powerful minister 
of Philip n. of Spain, of sinister augury for the Protestants. 
When Philip succeeded to the throne of his father, Charles 
Y., he inherited from him two passions — hatred of the Re- 
formed Church, and jealousy of France. To destroy the one 
and humiliate the other constituted the ambition of his life ; 
and to accomplish both objects, he spared neither the gold 
of the New World nor the blood of his subjects. His first 
desire, however, was to crush Protestantism ; and it was to 
devise measures with that object that the meeting between 
his favorite minister and Catharine de Medicis took place at 
Bidassoa. 

The queen-mother had by this time gone entirely round to 
the Guise party, and she had carried Charles IX., her son, 
with her. She had become equally desirous with the Duke 
of Alva to destroy heresy ; but while the Duke urged ex- 
termination of the Huguenots,* in accomplishmg which he 
promised the help of a Spanish army, Catharine, on the con- 
trary, was in favor of temporizing with them. It might be 
easy for Philip to extirpate heresy by force in Spain or Italy, 
where the Protestants were few in number; but the case was 
different in France, where the Huguenots had shown them- 
selves able to bring large armies into the field, led by vet- 
eran generals, and actually held in possession many of the 
strongest places in France. She assured the duke, neverthe- 
less, of her ardent desire to effect the ruin of the Reformed 

* The saying of the Duke of Alva is said to have alarmed the queen- 
mother. "Better," he said, " a head of salmon than ten thousand heads of 
frogs." 



60 PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED, 

party, her only difficulty consisting in the means by which it 
was to be accomplished.* 

Shortly before this time there had risen np in the bosom 
of the old Church a man in all respects as remarkable as Lu- 
ther, who exercised as extraordinary an influence, though ia 
precisely the opposite direction, on the religious history of 
Europe. This was Ignatius Loyola, the founder of, the Jesu- 
its, who infused into his followers a degree of zeal, energy, 
devotion, and, it must be added, unscrupulousness — stopping 
not to consider the means, provided the ends could be com- 
passed — which told most powerfully in the struggle of Prot- 
estantism for life or death throughout N'orthern Europe. 

Loyola was born in 1491 ; he was wounded at the siege of 
Pampeluna in 1520; after a period of meditation and morti- 
fication, he devoted himself, in 1522, to the service of the 
Church; and in 1540, the Order of the Jesuits was recog- 
nized at Rome and established by papal bull. The society 
early took root in France, where it was iatroduced by the 
Cardinal de Lorraine ; and it shortly acquired almost su- 
preme influence in the state. Under the Jesuits, the Romish 
Church, reorganized and redisciplined, became one of the 
most complete of spiritual machines. They enjoined implicit 
submission and obedience. Against liberty they set up au- 
thority. To them the individual was nothing, the Order ev- 
ery thing. They were vigilant sentinels, watchiag night and 
day over the interests of Rome. One of the first works to 
which they applied themselves was the extirpation of the 
heretics who had strayed from her fold. The principal in- 
strument which they employed with this object was the In- 
quisition ; and wherever they succeeded in establishing them- 
selves, that institution was set up, or was armed with fresh 
powers. They tolerated no half measures. They were un- 
sparing and unpitying ; and wherever a heretic was brought 
before them, and they had the power to deal with him, he 
must recant or die. 

* PuAux, ii., p. 228. 



PHILIP IL OF SPAIN. 61 

The first great field in wMcli the Jesuits put fi>rth theii* 
new-born strength was Flanders, which then formed part of 
the possessions of Spaia. The provinces of the Netherlands 
had reached the summit of commercial and manufacturing 
prosperity. They were inhabited by a hard-working, intel- 
ligent, and enterprising people — great as artists and mer- 
chants, painters and printers, architects and iron-workers — as 
the decayed glories of Antwerp, Bruges, and Ghent testify 
to this day. Although the two latter cities never complete- 
ly recovered from the injuries inflicted on them by the tyr- 
anny of the trades-unions, there were numerous other towns, 
where industry had been left comparatively free, in which 
the arts of peace were cultivated in security. Under the 
mild sway of the Burgundian dukes, Antwerp became the 
centre of the commerce of Northern Europe ; and more busi- 
ness is said to have been done there in a month than at Ven- 
ice in two years when at the summit of its grandeur. About 
the year 1550, it was no uncommon sight to see as many as 
2500 ships in the Scheldt, laden with merchandise for all 
parts of the world. 

Such was the prosperity of Flanders, and such the great- 
ness of Antwerp, when Philip H of Spain succeeded to the 
rich inheritance of Burgundy on the resignation of Charles 
V. in the year 1556. Had his subjects been of the same mind 
with himself in religious matters, Philip might have escaped 
the infamy which attaches to his name. But a large propor- 
tion of the most skilled and industrious people in the Neth- 
erlands had imbibed the new ideas as to a reform in religion 
which had swept over Northern Europe. They had read the 
newly-translated Bible with avidity ; they had formed them- 
selves into religious communities, and appointed preachers 
of their own ; in a word, they were Protestants. 

Philip had scarcely succeeded to the Spanish throne than 
he ordered a branch of the Inquisition to be set up in Flan- 
ders, with the Cardinal Grenvelle as Inquisitor General. The 
institution excited great opposition among all classes, Catho- 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED. 



lie as "well as Protestant ; and it was shortly followed by 
hostility and resistance, wMch eventually culminated in civil 
war. Sir Thomas Gresham, writing to Cecil from Antwerp 
in 1566, said, "There are above 40,000 Protestants in this 
toune, which will die rather than the Word of God should 
be put to silence." 

The struggle which now began was alike fierce and de- 
termined on both sides, and extended over many years. The 
powerful armies which the king directed against his revolted 
subjects were led by able generals, by the Duke of Alva, by 
Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, and many more ; and 
although they did not succeed in establishing the Inquisition 
in the Motherlands, they succeeded in either extermmating 
or banishing the greater part of the Protestants south of the 
Scheldt, at the same time that they ruined the industry of 
Flanders, destroyed its trade, and reduced the Catholics 
themselves to beggary. Bruges and Ghent became crowded 
with thieves and paupers. The busy quays of Antwerp were 
deserted, and its industrious artisans, tradesmen, and mer- 
chants fled from the place, leaving their property behind 
them a prey to the spoiler.* 

The Duchess of Parma, writing to Philip in 1567, said that 
" in a few days 100,000 men had already left the country with 
their money and goods, and that more were following every 
day." Clough, writing to Gresham from Antwerp in the 
same year, said, " It is marveylus to see how the pepell packe 
away from hense ; some for one place, and some for another ; 
as well the papysts as the Protestants ; for it is thought that 
howsomever it goeth, it can not go well here ; for that pres- 
ently all the welthy and rich men of both sydes, who should 
be the stay of matters, make themselves away."f 

The Duke of Alva carried on this frightful war of exterm- 
ination and persecution for six years, during which he boast- 

* It is said that for some years the plunder of the murdered and proscribed 
Protestants of the Low Countries brought into the royal treasury of Philip 
twenty millions of dollars annually. 

t Flanders Correspondence. — State-Paper Office. 



EMIGRA TION FROM FLANDERS. 63 

ed that he had sent 18,000 persons to the scaffold, besides the 
immense numbers destroyed in battles and sieges, and in the 
unrecorded acts of cruelty perpetrated on the peasantry by 
the Spanish soldiery. Philip heard of the depopulation and 
ruin of his provinces without regret ; and though Alva was 
recalled, the war was carried on with increased fury by the 
generals who succeeded him. What mainly comforted Philip 
was, that the people who remained were at length becoming 
terrijfied into orthodoxy. The ecclesiastics assured the Duke 
of Parma, the governor, that, notwithstanding the depopula- 
tion of the provinces, more people were coming to them for 
confession and absolution at the last Easter than had ever 
come since the beginning of the revolt. Parma immediately 
communicated the consoling intelligence to Philip, who re- 
plied, " You can not imagine my satisfaction at the news you 
give me concerning last Easter."* 

The flight of the Protestants from the Low Countries con- 
tinued for many years. All who were strong enough to fly, 
fled ; only the weak, the helpless, and the hopeless, remained. 
The fugitives turned their backs on Flanders, and their faces 
toward Holland, Germany, and England, and fled thither with 
their wives and children, and what goods they could carry 
with them, to seek new homes. Several hundred thousands 
of her best artisans — clothiers, dyers, weavers, tanners, cut- 
lers, and iron- workers of all kinds — left Flanders, carrying 
with them into the countries of their adoption theii* skUl, 
their intelligence, and their spirit of liberty. The greater 
number of them went directly into Holland, then gallantly 
struggling with Spain for its independent existence. There 
they founded new branches of industry, which eventually 
proved a source of wealth and strength to the United Prov- 
inces. Many others passed over into England, hailing it as 
"Asylum Christi,"and formed the settlements of which some 
account will be given in succeeding chapters. 

* Motley — History of the. United Netherlands (i., 490), where the story of 
Philip's war against his subjects ia the Low Countries will be found related 
with remarkable power. 



64 PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED. 

Having thus led the reader up to the period at which the 
exodus of Protestants from the Low Countries took place, we 
return to France, where Catharine de Medicis was stealthily- 
maturing her plans for stamping out heresy in the dominions 
of her son. The treaty of 1570 was stDl observed ; the Prot- 
estants were allowed to worship God after theii- own forms, 
and France was slowly recovering from the wounds which 
she had received during the recent civil war. At this time 
Catharine de Medicis artfully contrived a marriage between 
her daughter Margaret and Henry of Beam, king of !N"avarre, 
chief of all the Huguenots. Henry's mother, Jeanne D'Al- 
bret, and the Admiral Coligny, concurred in the union, in the 
hope that it would put an end to the feuds which existed be- 
tween the rival religious parties. Poj^e Pius Y., however, re- 
fused to grant the necessary dispensation to enable the mar- 
riage to be celebrated accordmg to the rites of the Roman 
Catholic Church; but the queen-mother got over this little 
difficulty by causing a dispensation to be forged in the Pope's 
name.* 

As Catharine de Medicis had anticipated, the heads of the 
Reformed party, regarding the marriage as an important 
step toward national reconciliation, resorted to Paris in large 
numbers to celebrate the event and grace the royal nuptials. 
Among those present were Admiral Coligny and his family. 
Some of the Huguenot chiefs were not without apprehensions 
for their personal safety, and even urged the admiral to quit 
Paris. But he believed in the pretended friendship of the 
queen-mother and her son, and insisted on staying until the 
ceremony was over. The marriage was celebrated with 
great splendor in the cathedral church of Notre Dame on the 
18th of August, 1572, the principal members of the nobility, 
Protestant as well as Roman Catholic, being present on the 
occasion. It was followed by a succession of feasts and gay- 
eties, iti which the leaders of both parties alike participated, 

* Vauyillieks — Histoire de Jeanne d^Albret. 



MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 65 

and the fears of the Huguenots were thus completely dis- 
armed. 

On the day after the marriage a secret council was held, 
at which it was determined to proclaim a general massacre 
of the Huguenots. The king was now willing to give 50,000 
crowns for the head of Coligny. To earn the reward, one 
Maurevert lay in wait for the admiral, on the 22d of August, 
in a house situated near the church of Saint Germain I'Aux- 
errois, hetween the Louvre and the Rue Bethisy. As the 
admiral passed, Maurevert fired and wounded him in the 
hand. Coligny succeeded in reaching his hotel, where he 
was attended by Ambrose Pare, who performed upon him a 
painful operation. The king visited the wounded man at 
his hotel, professed the greatest horror at the dastardly act 
which had been attempted, and vowed vengeance against 
the assassin. . 

Meanwhile, the day fixed by the queen-mother for the gen- 
eral massacre of the Huguenots drew near. Between two 
and three o'clock in the morning of the 24th of August, 1572, 
as the king sat in his chamber with his mother and the Duke 
of Anjou, the great bell of the church of St. Auxerrois rang to 
early prayer. It was the arranged signal for the massacre to 
begin ! Almost immediately after, the first pistol-shot was 
heard. Three hundred of the royal guard, who had been 
held m readiness during the night, rushed out into the 
streets, shouting " For God and the king." To distinguish 
themselves in the darkness, they wore a white sash on their 
left arm, and a white cross in then- hats. 

Before leaving the palace, a party of the guard murdered 

the retinue of the young King ofNavarre, then the guests of 

Charles IX. in the Louvre. They had come in the train of 

their chief, to be present at the celebration of his marriage 

with the sister of the King of France. One by one they were 

called from their rooms, marched down unarmed into the 

quadrangle, where they were hewed down before the very 

eyes of their royal host. A more perfidious butchery is 

probably not to be found recorded in history. 

E 



66 PERSECUTIONS OF TEE REFORMED. 

At the same timej miscliief was afoot tlirougliOTit Paris. 
Le Charron, provost of the merchants, and Marcel, his an- 
cient colleague, had mustered a large numher of despera- 
does, to whom respective quarters had been previously as- 
signed, and they now hastened to enter upon their frightftil 
morning's work. The Duke of Guise determined to antici- 
pate all others in the murder of Coligny. Hastening to his 
hotel, the duke's party burst in the outer door, and the ad- 
miral was roused from his slumber by the shots fired at his 
followers in the court-yard below. He rose from his couch, 
and though scarce able to stand, fled to an upper chamber. 
There he was tracked by his assassins, who stabbed him to 
death as he stood leaning against the walk His body was 
then thrown out of the window into the court-yard. The 
Duke of Guise, who had been waiting impatiently below, 
hurried up to the corpse, and wiping the blood from the ad- 
mii'al's face, said, " I know him — it is he ;" then, spurning the 
body with his foot, he called out to his followers, " Courage, 
comi-ades, we have begun well ; now for the rest ; the king 
commands it." They then rushed out again into the street. 

Firing was now heard in every quarter throughout Paris. 
The houses of the Huguenots, which had long been marked, 
were broken into, and men, women, and children were sabred 
or shot down. It was of no use trymg to fly. The fugitives 
were slaughtered in the streets. The king himself seized his 
arquebus, and securely fired upon his subjects from the win- 
dows of the Louvre. For three days the massacre contin- 
ued. Corpses blocked the doorways ; mutilated bodies lay 
in every lane and passage ; and thousands were cast into the 
Seine, then swollen by a flood. At length, on the fourth day, 
when the ftiry of the assassins had become satiated, and the 
Huguenots were for the most part slain, a dead silence fell 
upon the streets of Paris. 

These dreadful events at the capital were almost imme- 
diately followed by similar deeds all over France. From fif- 
teen to eighteen hundred persons were killed at Lyons, and 



MASSACRES THROUGHOUT FRANCE. 67 

the dwellers on the Rhone below that city were horrified 
by the sight of the dead bodies floatiag down the river. 
Six hundi-ed were killed at Rouen, and many more at 
Dieppe and Havre. The numbers killed during the massa- 
cre throughout France have been variously estimated. Sul- 
ly says '70,000 were slain, though other writers estimate the 
victims at 100,000. 

Catharine de Medicis wrote in triumph to Alva, to Philip 
IL, and to the Pope, of the results of the three days' dreadful 
"work in Paris. When Philip heard of the massacre, he is 
said to have laughed for the first and only time in his life. 
Rome was thrown into a deliiium of joy at the news. The 
cannon were fired at St. Angelo ; Gregory -KILL, and his car- 
dinals went in procession from sanctuary to sanctuary to 
give God thanks for the massacre. The subject was ordered 
to be painted, and a medal was struck, with the Pope's image 
on one side, and the destroying angel on the other immolat- 
ing the Huguenots. Cardinal Orsini was dispatched on a 
special mission to Paris to congratulate the king ; and on 
his passage thi'ough Lyons, the assassins of the Huguenots 
there, the blood on their hands scarce dry, knelt before the 
holy man in the cathedral and received his blessing. At 
Paris, the triumphant clergy celebrated the massacre by a 
public j)rocession ; they deteimined to consecrate to it an 
annual jubilee on the day of St. Bartholomew ; and they too 
had a medal struck in commemoration of the event, bearing 
the legend, " Piety has awakened justice !" 

As for the wretched young King of France, the terrible 
crime to which he had been a party weighed upon his mind 
to the last moment of his life. The recollection of the scenes 
of the massacre constantly haunted him, and he became rest- 
less, haggard, and miserable. He saw his murdered guests 
sitting by his side at bed and at board. " Ambrose,"* said 

* Ambrose Pare had won tlie confidence and friendship of Charles IX. by 
saving him from the effects of a wound inflicted by a clumsy surgeon in per- 
forming the operation of venesection. Pare, though a Huguenot, held the 
important office of surgeon in ordinary to the king, and was constantly about 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED, 



he to his confidential physician, " I know not what has hap- 
pened to me these two or three days past, hut I feel my 
mind and body as much at enmity with each other as if I 
was seized with a fever. Sleeping or waking, the murdered 
Huguenots seem ever present to my eyes, with ghastly faces, 
and weltering in blood. I wish the innocent and helpless 
had been spared." He died in tortures of mmd impossible 
to be described — attended in his last moments, strange to 
say, by a Huguenot physician and a Huguenot nurse ; one 
of the worst horrors that haunted him being that his own 
mother was causing his death by slow poisoning, an art in 
which he knew that great bad woman to be fearfully accom- 
plished. 

To return to the s^irviving Huguenots, and the measures 
adopted by them for self-preservation. Though they were 
at first stunned by the massacre, they were not slow to asso- 
ciate themselves together, in those districts in which they 
were sufficiently strong, for purposes of self-defense. Along 
the western sea-board, at points where they felt themselves 
unable to make head against their persecutors, they put to 
sea in ships and boats, and made for England, where they 
landed in great numbers — at Rye, at Hastings, at Southamp- 
ton, and the numerous other ports on the south coast. This 

his person. To this circumstance he owed his escape from the massacre, the 
king concealing him during the night in a private room adjoining his own 
chamber. Palissy, of whom we have ah*eady spoken, most probably also 
owed his escape to the circumstance of his being in the immediate employ- 
ment of Catharine de Medicis. But even employment at court did not se- 
cure the Huguenots in all cases against assassination. Thus Jean Goujon, 
the sculptor, sometimes styled "the French Phidias, "was shot from below 
while employed on a scaffold in executing the decorative work of the old 
Louvre. Some of the greatest early artists of France were Huguenots like 
Goujon ; for example, Jean Cousin, founder of the French school of painting; 
Barthelemy Prieur, sculptor ; and Jean Bullant, Debrosses, and Du Cerceau, 
the celebrated architects. Goudimel the musical composer, and Eamus the 
philosopher, were also slain in the massacre. Before this time Ramus's house 
had been pillaged and his library destroyed. Dumoulin, the great juriscon- 
sult, had previously escaped by death. "The execrable day of Saint Bar- 
tholomew," said the Catholic Chateaubi'iand, " only made martyrs ; it gave 
to philosophical ideas an advantage over religious ideas which has never 
since been lost." 



ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. 69 

was particularly the case with the artisans and skilled labor 
class, whose means of living are invariably imperiled by a 
state of civil war ; and they fled into England to endeavor, 
if possible, to pursue their respective callings in peace, while 
they worshiped God according to their conscience. 

But the Huguenot nobles and gentry would not and could 
not abandon their followers to destruction. They gathered 
together in their strong places, and prepared to defend them- 
selves by force against force. In the Cevennes, Dauphiny, 
and other quarters, they betook themselves to the mountains 
for refuge. In the plains of the south, fifty towns closed 
their gates against the royal troops. Wherever resistance 
was possible it showed itself. The little town of Sancerre 
held out successfully for ten months, during which the in- 
habitants, without arms, heroically defended themselves with 
slings, called " the arquebuses of Sancerre," enduring mean- 
while the most horrible privations, and reduced to eat moles, 
snails^ bread made of straw mixed with scraps of horse-har- 
ness, and even the parchment of old title-deeds. The Roman 
Catholics, under the Duke of Anjou, also attacked Rochelle, 
and after great suffering and heroism on both sides, the as- 
sailants were repulsed and compelled to retire from, the siege. 
Wliile this civil war was in progress, the king died and was 
succeeded by Henry ni.,the same Duke of Anjou who had 
been repulsed from Rochelle. Henry of ITavarre and the 
Prince of Conde now assumed the leadership of the Hugue- 
nots, and the wars of the League began, which kept France 
in a state of anarchy for many years, and were only brought 
to a conclusion by the succession of Henry IV. to the throne 
in 1594. 

So powerful, however, was the Roman Catholic party in 
France, that Henry found it necessary to choose between his 
religion and his crown. In that age of assassination, he prob- 
ably felt that unless he reconciled himself to the old Church, 
his life was not safe for a day. Henry's religion at all times 
clung to him but loosely ; indeed, he was not a religious man 



70 PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED. 

in any sense ; for, though magnanimous, large-hearted, and 
brave, he was given up, like most kings in those days, to the 
pleasures of the senses. He had become a Huguenot through 
political rather than religious causes, and it cost him little 
sacrifice to become a Catholic. For sake of peace, therefore, 
as well as for the sake of his own life, Henry conformed. 
But, though he governed France ably and justly for a period 
of sixteen years, his apostasy did not protect him ; for, after 
repeated attempts upon his life by emissaries of the Jesuits, 
he was eventually assassinated by Francis Ravaillac, a lay- 
brother of the monastery of St. Bernard, on the 14th of May, 
1610. 

One of Henry's justest and greatest acts was the promul- 
gation, in 1598, of the celebrated Edict of Nantes. By that 
edict, the Huguenots, after sixty years of persecution, were 
allowed at last comparative liberty of conscience and free- 
dom of worship. What the Roman Catholics thought of it 
may be inferred from the protest of the Pope, Clement Viil., 
who wrote to say that " a decree which gave liberty of con- 
science to all was the most accursed that had ever been 
made." 

Persons of the Reformed faith were now admitted to pub- 
lic employment ; their children were afforded access to the 
schools and universities ; they were provided with equal rep- 
resentation in some of the provincial Parliaments, and per- 
mitted to hold a certain number of places of surety in the 
kingdom. And thus was a treaty of peace at length estab- 
lished for a time between the people of the contending faiths 
throughout France. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EELATIONS OF ENGLAND WITH FEANCE AND SPAIN. 

While the rulers of France and Spain were making these 
desperate efforts to crush the principles of the Reformation 
in then* dominions, the Protestants of England regarded their 
proceedings with no small degree of apprehension and alarm. 
Though the Reformed faith had made considerable progress 
in the English towns at the period of Elizabeth's accession 
to the throne in 1558, it was still in a considerable minority 
throughout the country.* The great body of the nobility, 
the landed gentry, and the rural population adhered to the 
old religion, while there was a considerable middle class of 
Gallios, who were content to wait the issue of events before 
declaring- themselves on either side. 

During the reigns which had preceded that of Elizabeth, 
the country had been ill governed and the public interests 
neglected. The nation was in debt and unarmed, with war 
raging abroad. But Elizabeth's greatest difficulty consisted 
in the fact of her being a Protestant, and the successor of a 
Roman Catholic queen who had reigned with undisputed 

* Soames, in his Elizabethan Religious History, says that at the accession 
of Elizabeth two thirds of the people were Catholics. Butler, in his Memoirs 
of the Catholics, holds the same jiew. On the other hand, Mr. Hallam, in his 
Constitutional History, estimates that in 1559 the Protestants were two thirds 
of the population. Mr. Buckle, in an able posthumous paper which appeared 
in Eraser's Magazine (February, 1867), inclines to the view that the Protest- 
ants were still in the minority. *'0f the two great parties, "he says, "one 
occupied the north and the other the south, and a line drawn from the 
Humber (to the mouth of the Severn ?) formed the boundary of their re- 
spective dominions. The Catholics of the north were headed by the great 
families (of the Percies and Nevilles), and had on their side all those ad- 
vantages which the prescription of ages alone can give. To the south were 
the Protestants, who, though they could boast of none of those great his- 
torical names which reflected a lustre on their opponents, were supported by 
the authority of the government, and felt that enthusiastic confidence which 
only belongs to a young religion." 



ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN. 



power during the five years wMch preceded Ler accession to 
the throne. N'o sooner had* she become queen than the em- 
barrassment of her' position was at once felt. The Pope de- 
nied her legitimacy, and refused to recognize her authority. 
The bishops refused to crown her. The two universities 
united with Convocation in presenting to the House of Lords 
a declaration in favor of the papal supremacy. The King of 
France openly suj)ported the claim of Mary Qneen of Scots 
to the English throne ; and a large and mfluential body of 
the nobility and gentry were her secret, if not her avowed 
partisans. 

From the day of her ascending the throne Elizabeth was 
the almost constant object of plots formed to destroy her 
and pave the way for the re-establishment of the old relig- 
ion. Elizabeth might possibly have escaped from her diffi- 
culties by accepting the hand of Philip II. of Spain, which 
was offered her. She refused, and determined to trust to her 
people. But her enemies were numerous, powerful, and ac- 
tive in conspiring against her authority, and they had their 
emissaries constantly at the French and Spanish courts, and 
at the camp of Alva in the ^Netherlands, urging the invasion 
of England and the overthrow of the English queen. 

One of the circumstances which gave the most grievous of- 
fense to the French and Spanish monarchs was the free asy- 
lum which Elizabeth offered in England to the Protestants 
flying from their persecutions abroad. Though those rulers 
would not permit their subjects to worship according to con- 
science in their own country, neither would they tolerate their 
leaving it to worship in freedom elsewhere. Conformity, not 
depopulation, was their object, but conformity by force if not 
by suasion. All attempts made by the persecuted to leave 
France or Flanders were accordingly interdicted. They were 
threatened with confiscation of their property and goods if 
they fled, and with death if they were captured. The hearts 
of the kings were hardened, and they " would not let the peo- 
ple go !" But the sea was a broad and free road that could 



RECLAMATION OF THE FUGITIVES. 



not be closed, and from all parts of the coasts of France and 
Flanders the tidings reached the monarchs of the escape of 
their subjects, whom they had failed either to convert or to 
kill. They could then but gnash their teeth and utter threats 
against the queen and the nation that had given their perse- 
cuted people asylum. 

The French king formally demanded that Elizabeth should 
banish his fugitive subjects from her realm as rebels and her- 
etics ; but he was impotent to enforce his demands, and the 
fugitives remained. The Spanish monarch then called upon 
the Pope to interfere, and he, in his turn, tried to close the 
ports of England against foreign heretics. In a communica- 
tion addressed by him to Elizabeth, the Pope proclaime^d the 
fugitives to be " drunkards and sectaries" — ehriosi et sectarii 
— and declared " that all such as were the worst of the peo- 
ple resorted to England, and were by the queen received into 
safe protection" — ad quam velut ad asylum omnium i7n2oes- 
tissimi perfugiurn invenerunt. 

The Pope's denunciations of the refugees were answered 
by Bishop Jewell, who vindicated theii* character, and held 
them up as examples of industry and orderly living. " Is it 
not lawful," he asked, "for the queen to receive strangers 
without the Pope's warrant ?" Quoting the above-cited Lat- 
in passages, he proceeded : " Thus he speaketh of the poor ex- 
iles of Flanders, France, and other countries, who either lost 
or left behind them all that they had, goods, lands, and houses 
— ^not for adultery, or theft, or treason, but for the profession 
of the Grospel. It pleased God here to cast them on land ; 
the queen, of her gracious pity, hath granted them harbor. 
Is it so heinous a thing to show mercy ?" The bishop pro- 
ceeded to retort upon the Pope for harboring 6000 usurers 
and 20,000 courtesans in his own city of Rome ; and he de- 
sired to know whether, if the Pope was to be allowed to en- 
tertain such " servants of the devil," the Queen of England 
was to be denied the liberty of receiving " a few servants of 
God?" "They are," he continued, " our brethren ; they live 



74 * ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN. 

not idly. If they have houses of us, they pay rent for them. 
They hold not our grounds but by making due recompense. 
They beg not in our streets, nor crave any thing at our hands 
but to breathe our air and to see our sun. They labor true- 
fully, they live sparingly. They are good examples of virtue, 
travail, faith, and patience. The towns in which they abide 
are happy, for God doth follow them with his blessings."* 

When the French and Spanish monarchs found that Eliza- 
beth continued to give an asylum to their Protestant sub- 
jects, they proceeded to compass her death. Their embassa- 
dors at the English court acted as spies upon her proceed- 
ings, organized plots against her, and stirred up discontent 
on all sides. They found a ready tnsti-ument in the Queen 
of Scots, then confined in Tutbury Castle. Mary was not, 
however, held so strict a prisoner as to be precluded from 
carrying on an active correspondence with her partisans in 
England and Scotland, with the Duke of Guise and others in 
France, and with the Duke of Alva and Philip 11. in Flanders 
and Spain. GuUty though the Queen of Scots had been of 
the death of her husband, the Roman Catholics of England 
regarded her as their rightful head, and were ready to rise in 
arms in her cause. 

Mary was an inveterate intriguer. We find her entreating 
the courts of France and Spain to send her soldiers, artillery- 
men, and arms ; and the King of Spain to set on foot the in- 

* Bishop Jewell's Works (Pavker Society), p. 114:8, 1149. The refu- 
gee Flemings also, in 1567, defended themselves against the charges made 
against them, in a letter to the Bishop of London, inclosed by him to Cecil 
(as preserved in the State Paper Office), in which they referred to "the 
murders, pillories, massacres, imprisonments, re-baptisms of little children, 
banishments, confiscations, and all sorts of ' desbordements' executed against 
the faithful subjects of the king in the Low Countries, and supplicating grace 
and license" "a touts gentilshommes, borgeois, marchants, et artizants des 
Pays Bas de povoir librement venir en cestun vostre royaume, et ses retirer 
en villes lesquelles ils vous plaira de nommer et designer a cegt effect et quel- 
les il leur soit permit de librement demeurer negotier et exercer toutes sortes 
de stils et mestiers chascun selon sa sorte et qualite ou quelque aultre quil 
estimera plus convenable en regard au particulicrs commodites des lieux et 
la charge touttefois en condition que chascun apporte certificate a I'apprus- 
ment du consistoire de I'Eglise de v're ville de Londres," etc. — State Papers, 
voLxliii., 29. 



THE POPE'S B ULL A GAINST ELIZABETH. 75 

vasion of England, with tlie object of dethroning Elizabeth 
and restoring the Roman Catholic faith. Her importunities, 
as well as the fascinations of her person, were not without 
their effect upon those under her immediate influence ; and 
she succeeded in inducing the Duke of Norfolk, who cher- 
ished the hope of becoming her fourth husband, to undertake 
a scheme for her liberation. A conspiracy of the leading 
nobles was formed, at the head of which were the Earls of 
Northumberland and Westmoreland ; and in the autumn of 
1568 they raised the standard of revolt in the northern coun- 
ties, where the power of the Roman Catholic jjarty was the 
strongest.* But the rising was speedily suppressed ; some 
of its leaders fled into Scotland, and others into foreign coun- 
tries ; the Duke of Norfolk was sent to the Tower ; and the 
queen's authority was for the time upheld. 

The Pope next launched against Elizabeth the most formi- 
dable missile of the Church — a bull of excommunication — in 
which he declared her to be cut off, as the minister of iniqui- 
ty, from the community of the faithful, and forbade her sub- 
jects to. recognize her as tlieii* sovereign. This document 
was found nailed up on the Bishop of London's door on the 
morning of the 15th of May, 1570. The French and Spanish 
courts now considered themselves at liberty to compass the 
life of Elizabeth by assassination, f The Cardinal de Lbr- 

* After having written to Pope Pins V., the Spanish embassador, and the 
Duke of Alva, to request their assistance, and to advise that a port should 
be seized on the eastern coast of England, where it would be easy to disem- 
bark troops, . . . they left Brancepath on the Mth of November, at the head 
of 500 horsemen, and marched toward Durham. The insurrection was en- 
tirely Catholic. Th§y had painted Jesus Christ on the cross, with his five 
bleeding wounds, upon a banner borne by old Norton, who was inspired by 
the most religious enthusiasm. The people of Durham opened their gates 
and joined the rebels. Thus made masters of the town, the insurgents pro- 
ceeded to the cathedral, burned the Bible, destroyed the Book of Common 
Prayer, broke in pieces the Protestant communion-table, and restored the 
old form of worship. — Mignet — History of Mary Queen of Scots, Lond. ed., 
1851, ii., 100. 

t Assassination was in those days regarded as the readiest method of get- 
ting rid of an adversary ; and in the case of an excommunicated person, it 
was regarded almost in the light of a religious duty. When the Regent 
Murray (of Scotland) was assassinated by Bothwellhaugh, in 1570, Maiy of 



ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN. 



raine, head of the Church in France, and the confidential ad- 
viser of the queen-mother, hired a party of assassins in the 
course of the same year for the purpose of destroying Eliza- 
beth, because of the encouragement she had given to Coligny 
and the French Huguenots. Again, the Duke of Alva, in his 
correspondence with Mary Queen of Scots and the leaders of 
the Roman Catholic party in England, insisted throughout 
that the first condition of sending a Spanish army to their 
assistance was the death of Elizabeth. 

Such was the state of ajffau's when the Bishop of Ross, one 
of Mary's most zealous partisans, set on foot a conspiracy for 
the destruction of the queen. The principal agent employed 
in communicating with foreign powers on the subject was 
one Ridolfi, a rich Florentine banker in London, dii'ector of 
the company of Italian merchants, and an ardent papist. 
Minute instructions were drawn up and intrusted to Ridolfi*, 
to be laid by him before Pope Pius V. and Philip II. of Spain. 
On his way to Rome through the Low Countries he waited 
on the Duke of Alva, and presented to him a letter from 
Mary Queen of Scots, beseeching him to furnish her with 
prompt assistance, with the object of " laying all this island" 
under perpetual obligations to his master the King of Spain 
as well as to herself, as the faithful executor of his com- 
mands.* 

At Rome Ridolfi was welcomed by the Pope, who eagerly 
adopted his plans, and furnished him with a letter to Philip 
n., conjuring that monarch, by his fervent piety toward God, 
to furnish all the means he might judge most suitable for 
carrying them into effect. Ridolfi next proceeded to Madrid 

Scots gave him a pension. Many attempts were about the same time made 
on the life of William of Orange, surnamed "The Silent." One made at 
Mechlin, in 1572, proved a failure ; but he was finally assassinated at Delft, 
in 1585, by Balthazar Gerard, an avowed agent of Philip II. and the Jesuits; 
Philip having afterward ennobled the family of the assassin. The wife of 
William of Orange, in whose arms he expired, was a daughter of Admiral 
Coligny. 

* Prince LabanofF's Collection, iii., 216-220, cited by Mignet— JKsiorv of 
Mary Queen of Scots, ii., 135. 



SPANISH FLO T A GAINST ELIZABETH. 77 

to hold an interview with the Spanish court and arrange for 
the murder of the English queen. He was received to a con- 
ference with the Council of State, at which were present the 
Pope's nuncio, the Cardinal Archbishop of Seville (Inquisitor 
General) ; the Grand Prior of Castile, the Duke of Feria, the 
Prince of Eholi, and other high ministers of Spain. Ridolfi 
proceeded to lay his plan for assassinating Elizabeth before 
the counciL* He said " the blow would not be struck in 
London, because that city was the strong-hold of heresy, but 
while she was travehng." ^ On the council proceeding to dis- 
cuss the expediency of the proposed murder, the Pope's nun- 
cio at once undertook to answer aU objections. The one 
sufficient pretext, he said, was the bull of excommunication. 
The vicar of God had deprived Elizabeth of her thi-one, and 
the soldiers of the Church were the instruments of his decree 
to execute the sentence of heaven against the heretical ty- 
rant. On this, one Chapin Yitelli, who had come from Flan- 
ders to attend the council, offered himself as the assassm. 
He said, if the matter was intrusted to him, he would take or 
kill the queen. The councilors of state present then several- 
ly stated their views, which were placed on record, and are 
still to be seen in the archives at Simancas. 

Philip n. concurred in the plot, and professed himself ready 
to undertake the conquest of England by force if it failed ; 
but he suggested that the Pope should supply the necessary 
money. Philip, however, was a man of hesitating purpose ; 
and, foreseeing the dangers of the enterprise, he delayed em- 
barking in it, and eventually resolved on leaving the matter 
to the decision of the Duke of Alva, f 

Wliile these measures against the life of Elizabeth were 
bemg devised abroad, Mary Queen of Scots was diligently 

* The minutes of this remarkable meeting of council were fully written 
out by Zayas, Secretary of State, and are preserved in the archives of Si- 
mancas (Inglaten'a, fol. 823). We follow the account given by Mignet in his 
History of Mary Queen q/" aSco^s, published in 1851, since fully confirmed by 
Mr. Froude in his recently published History of England from the Fall of 
Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, vol. iv. 

t Mignet — History ofMar-y Queen of Scots. 



78 ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN. 

occupied at Chatsworth in encouraging a like plot at home 
with the same object. Lord Burleigh, however, succeeded 
in gaining a clew to the conspiracy, on which the principal 
agents in England were apprehended, and the queen was put 
upon her guard. The Spanish embassador, Don Gerau, being 
found in secret correspondence with Maiy, was warned to 
depart the realm; his last characteristic act being to hii*e 
two bravoes to assassinate Burleigh, and he lingered upon 
the road to Dover, hoping to hear that the deed had been 
done. But the assassins were detected in time, and, instead 
of taking Burleigh's life, they only lost their own. 

The Protestant party were from time to time thrown into 
agonies of alarm by the rumor of these plots against the life 
of their queen, and by the reported apprehension of agents of 
foreign powers arriving in England for the pui-pose of Stir- 
ling up rebellion and preparing the way for the landing of 
the Duke of Alva and his army. The intelligence brought 
by the poor hunted Flemings, who had by this time landed 
in England in large numbers, and settled in London and the 
principal towns of the south, and the accounts which they 
spread abroad of the terrors of Philip's rule in the Low Coun- 
tries, told plainly enough what the English Protestants had 
to expect if the threatened Spanish invasion succeeded. 

The effect of these proceedings was to rouse a general feel- 
ing of indignation against the foreign plotters and persecu- 
tors, and to evoke an active and energetic public opinion in 
support of the queen and her government. A large propor- 
tion of the English people were probably still in a great 
measure undecided as to their faith ; but their feeling of na- 
tionality was intense. The conduct of Elizabeth herself was 
doubtless iofluenced quite as much by political as religious 
considerations ; and in the midst of the difficulties by which 
she was surrounded, her policy doubtless seemed tortuous 
and inconsistent. The nation was, indeed, in one of the 
greatest crises of its fate ; and the queen, her ministers, and 
the nation at large, every day more clearly recognized in the 



INDIGNATION OF THE ENGLISH NATION. 79 

great questions at stake not merely the cause of Protestant- 
ism against Popery, but of Englisli nationality against foreign 
ascendency, and of resistance to the threatened yoke of Rome, 
France, and Spain. 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew, which shortly followed, 
exercised a powerful influence in determining the sympathies 
of the English people. The news of its occurrence called 
forth a general shout of execration. The Huguenot fugitives 
who crowded for refiige into the southern ports brought with 
them accounts of the barbarities practiced on their fellow- 
countrymen which filled the mind of the nation with horror. 
The people would have rushed willingly into a war to punish 
the perfidy and cnielty of the French Roman Catholics, but 
Elizabeth forbade her subjects to take up arms except on 
their own account as private volunteers. 

What the queen's private feelings were may be inferred 
from the reception which she gave to La Mothe Fenelon, the 
French embassador, on his first appearance at court after the 
massacre. For several days she refused to see him, but at 
length admitted him to an- audience. The lords and ladies 
in waiting received him in profound silence. They were 
dressed in deep mourning, and grief seemed to sit on every 
countenance. They did not deign to salute, or even to look 
at the embassador, as he advanced toward the queen, who re- 
ceived him with a severe and mournful countenance ; and, 
stammering out his odious apology, he hastened from her 
presence. Rarely, if ever, had a French embassador appear- 
ed at a foreign court ashamed of the country he represented; 
but on this occasion La Mothe Fenelon declared, in the bit- 
terness of ids heart, that he blushed to bear the name of 
Frenchman. 

The massacre of Saint Bartholomew most probably sealed 
the fate of Mary Stuart. She herself rejoiced in it as a bold 
stroke for the faith, and, it might be, the signal for a like en- 
terprise on her own behalf Accordingly, she went on plot- 
ting as before, and in 1581 she was found engaged in a con- 



80 ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN. 

spiracy with tlie Duke of Lennox for the re-establishment of 
popery in Scotland, under the auspices of the Jesuits.* These 
intrigues of the Queen of Scots at length became intolerable. 
Her repeated and urgent solicitations to the King of Spain to 
invade England with a view to the re-establishment of the 
old religion — the conspiracies against the life of Elizabeth in 
which she was from time to time detectedf — excited the ve- 
hement indignation of the EngHsh nation, and eventually led 
to her trial and execution ; for it was felt that so long as 
Mary Stuart hved the life of the English queen, as well as the 
liberties of the English people, were iu daily jeopardy. 

It is doubtless easy to condemn the policy of Elizabeth in 
this matter, now that we are living in the light of the nine- 
teenth century, and peacefully enjoying the freedom won for 
us through the suffering and agony of our forefathers. But, 
in judging of the transactions of those times, it is right that 
allowance should be made for the different moral sense which 
then prevailed, as well as the circumstances amid which the 
nation carried on its life-and-death struggle for independent 
existence. Eight is still right, it is true ; but the times have 

* MiGNET — History of Mary Queen of Scots, ii., 207-12. 

t One of such conspiracies against the life of Elizabeth was that conducted 
by John Ballard, a Roman Catholic priest, in 1586. The principal instru- 
ment in the affair was one Anthony Babington, who had been for two years 
the intermediary correspondent between Mary Stuart, the Archbishop of 
Glasgow, and Paget and Morgan, his co-conspiratoi-s. Ballard, Babington, 
and the rest of the gang were detected, watched, and eventually captured 
and condemned, through the vigilance of Elizabeth's ever-watchful minister 
Walsingham. 'Mary had been kept fully advised of all their proceedings. 
Babington wrote to her in June, 1587, explaining the intention of the con- 
spirators, and enumerating all the means for getting rid of Elizabeth. * ' My- 
self in person," he said, "with ten gentlemen and a hundred others of our 
company and suite, will undertake the deliverance of your royal person from 
the hands of your enemies. As regards getting rid of the usiffper, from sub- 
jection to whom we are absolved by the act of excommunication issued 
against her, there are six gentlemen of quality, all of them my intimate 
friends, who, for the love they bear to the Catholic cause and to your maj- 
esty's sei-vice, will undertake the tragic execution." In the same letter 
Babington requested Mary Stuart to appoint persons to act as her lieuten- 
ants, and raise the populace in Wales, and in the counties of Lancashire, 
Derby, and Stafford. This letter, with others to a like effect, duly came 
into the possession of Walsingham. — See Mignet — History of Mary Queen 
of Scots. 



THE SA CRED ARMADA. 81 

become completely changed, and public opinion bas changed 
with them. 

In the mean while, religious persecutions continued to rage 
abroad with as much fury as before, and fugitives from Flan- 
ders and France continued to take refuge in England, where 
they received protection and asylum. Few of the refugees 
brought any property with them ; the greater number were 
entirely destitute. But very many of them brought with 
them that kind of wealth which money could not buy — ^in- 
telligence, skill, virtue, and the spirit of independence ; those 
very qualities which made them hateful to their persecutors, 
rendering them all the more valuable subjects in the countries 
of their adoption. 

A large part of Flanders, before so r-ich and so prosperous, 
had by this time become reduced almost to a state of desert. 
The country was eaten bare by the Spanish armies. Wild 
beasts infested the abandoned dwellings of the peasantry, 
and wolves littered then* young iq the deserted farm-houses. 
Bruges and Ghent became the resort of thieves and paupers. 
The sack of Antwerp in 1585 gave the last blow to the stag- 
gering industry of that great city ; and though many of its 
best citizens had already fled from it into Holland and En- 
gland, one third of the remaining merchants and workers in 
silks, damasks, and other stuffs shook the dust of the Low 
Countries from their feet, and left the country forever. 

Philip of Spain at length determined to take summaiy 
vengeance upon England. He was master of the most pow- 
erful army and navy in the world, and he believed that he 
could effect by force what he had been unable to compass by 
intrigue. The most stern and bigoted of kings, the great co- 
lossus of the Papacy, the duly-appointed Defender of the 
Faith, he resolved, at the same time that he pursued and pun- 
ished his recreant subjects who had taken refuge in England, 
to degrade and expel the sacrilegious occupant of the English 
throne. Accordingly, ui 1588, he prepared and launched his 
Sacred Armada, one of the most powerful armaments that 

F 



ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN. 



ever put to sea. It consisted of 130 sliips, "besides transports, 
carrying 2650 great guns and 33,000 soldiers and sailors, "be- 
sides 180 priests and monks under a Yicar General of the 
Holy Inquisition. It was also furnished with chains and in- 
struments of torture, and with smiths to set them to work 
— destined for the punishment of the pestilent heretics who 
had so long defied the power of Spain. 

This armament was to be joined in its progress by another 
equally powerful off the coast of Flanders, consisting of an 
immense fleet of flat-bottomed boats, carrying an army of 
100,000 men, equipped with the best weapons and materials 
of war, who were to be conveyed to the mouth of the Thames 
under the escort of the great Spanish fleet. 

The expedition was ably planned. The Pope blessed it, 
and promised to co-operate with his money, pledging himself 
to advance a million of ducats so soon as the expedition 
reached the British shores. At the same time, the bull issued 
by Pope Pius Y., excommunicating Elizabeth and dispossess- 
ing her of her throne, was confirmed by Sixtus V., and reis- 
sued with additional anathemas. Setting forth under such 
auspices, it is not surprising to find that Catholic Europe en- 
tertained the conviction that the expedition must necessarily 
be successful, and that Elizabeth and Protestantism in En- 
gland were doomed to inevitable destruction. 

No measure could, however, have been better calculated 
than this to weld the English people of all ranks and classes, 
Catholics as well as Protestants, into one united nation. The 
threatened invasion of England by a foreign power — above 
all, by a power so hated as Spain — roused the patriotic feel- 
ing in all hearts. There was a general rising and arming by 
land and by sea. Along the south coast the whole maritime 
population arrayed themselves in arms ; and every available 
ship, sloop, and wherry was manned and sent forth to meet 
and fight the Spaniards. 

The result is matter of history. The Sacred and Invinci- 
ble Armada was shattered by the ships of Drake, Hawkins, 



PHILIP 11. AND ELIZABETH. 83 

and Howard, and finally scattered by the tempests of tlie Al- 
nughty. The free asylum of England was maintained ; the 
hunted exiles were thenceforward free to worship and to la- 
bor in peace ; and beneficent efiects of the addition of so many 
skilled, industrious, and free-minded men to our population 
are felt in England to this day. 

Philip n. of Spain died in 1598, the same year in which 
Henry lY. of France promulgated the Edict of Nantes. At 
his accession to the Spanish throne in 1556, Philip was the 
most powerful monarch in Em-ope, served by the ablest gen- 
erals and admirals, with an immense army and navy at his 
command." At his death, Spain was distracted and defeated, 
with a bankrupt exchequer ; Holland was free, and Flanders 
in ruins. The intellect and energies of Spain were prostrate ; 
but the priests were paramount. The only institution that 
flourished throughout the dominions of Philip, at his death, 
was the Inquisition. 

Elizabeth of England, on the other hand, succeeded, in 1558, 
to an impoverished kingdom, an empty exchequer, and the 
government of a distracted people, one half of whom denied, 
and were even ready to resist, her authority. England was 
then without weight in the affairs of Europe. She had no 
army, and her navy was contemptible. After a reign of for- 
ty-five years, the aspect of affairs had become completely 
changed. The nation was found firmly united, content, free, 
and prosperous. An immense impulse had been given to in- 
dustry. The iatellect of the people had become awakened, 
and a literature sprang up which is the wonder even of mod- 
ern times. The power of England abroad was every where 
recognized. The sceptre of the seas was wrested from Spain, 
and England thenceforward commanded the high road to 
America and the Indies. 

The queen was supported by able ministers, though not 
more able than those who surrounded the King of Spain. 
But the spiiit that moved them was wholly different — ^the 
English monarch encouraging freedom, the Spanish repress- 



84 ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN. 

ing it. As the one was the founder of modern England, so 
the other was of modem Spain. 

It is true, Elizabeth did not rise to the high idea of com- 
plete religious liberty. But no one then did — not even the 
most advanced thinker. Still, the foundations of such liberty- 
were laid, while industry was fostered and protected. It 
was accomplishing much to have done this. The rest was 
the work of experience working under an atmosphere of fi'ee- 
dom. 



CHAPTER y. 

SETTLEMENTS AJSDD INTmSTRIES OP THE PEOTESTANT 
EEPFGEES. 

The early English were a pastoral and agricultural, and 
by no means a manufacturing people. In the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, most articles of clothing, exceptiug such 
as w.ere produced by ordinary domestic industry, were im- 
ported from Flanders, 'France, and Germany.* The great 
staple was wool, which was sent abroad m vast quantities. 
" The ribs of all people throughout the world," wrote Mat- 
thew Paris, " are kept warm by the fleeces of English wool." 

The wool and its growers were on one side of the Channel, 
and the skilled workmen who dyed and wove it into cloth 
were on the other. When war broke out, and communica- 
tion between the two shores was interrupted, as much dis- 
tress was occasioned in Flanders as was lately experienced 
in Lancashire by the stoppage of the supply of cotton from 
the United States. On one occasion, in the fourteenth cen- 
tury, when the export of wool from England was prohib- 
ited, tbe effect was to reduce the manufacturing population 
throughout the Low Countries to destitution and despair. 

* Besides the cloth of Flanders, England was also supplied with most of 
its finer fabrics from abroad, the names of the articles to this day indicating 
the places where they were manufacttired. Thus there was the mechlin 
lace of Mechlin, the duflOie of Duffel, the diaper of Ypres (d'Ypres), the cam- 
bric of Cambray, the arras of Arras, the tull6 of Tulle, the damask of Da- 
mascus, and the dimity of Diametta. Besides these, we imported delph 
ware from Delft, Venetian glass from Venice, cordovan leather from Cordova, 
and milanery from Milan. The Milaners of London were a special class of 
general dealers. They sold not only French and Flemish cloths, but Span- 
ish gloves and girdles, Milan caps and cutlery, silk, lace, needles, pins for 
ladies' dresses (before which skewers were used), swords, knives, daggers, 
brooches, glass, porcelain, and vaiious articles of foreign manufacture. The 
name of "milliner" (from Milaner) is now applied only to dealers in ladies' 
caps and bonnets. 



86 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

"Then might be seen throughout Flanders," says the local 
historian, " weavers, fullers, and others living hy the woolen 
manufacture, either begging, or, driven by debt, tilling the 
soiL"* 

At the same time, like distress overtook the English wool- 
growers, who lost the market for their produce, on which 
they had been accustomed to rely. It naturally occurred to 
the English kings that it would be of great advantage to 
this country to have the wool made into cloth by the hands 
of their own people, instead of sending it abroad for the pur- 
pose. They accordingly held out invitations to the distressed 
Flemish artisans to come and settle in England, where they 
would find abundant employment at remunerative wages ; 
and as early as the reign of Edward HI. a large number of 
Flemings came over and settled in London, Kent, Norfolk, 
Devon, Somerset, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Westmoreland, f 

The same policy was pursued by successive English kings, 
down to the reign of Henry VJLLJL, who encouraged skilled 
artisans of all kinds to settle in England, as armorers, cutlers, 
miners, brewers, and ship-builders ; the principal craftsmen 
employed by the court being Flemings and Germans. The 
immigration of foreigners persecuted for conscience' sake be- 
gan in the reign of his successor Edward VT., after which 
there was no longer any necessity for holding out invitations 
to skilled artisans of other countries to settle among us. 
Latimer, preaching before the Idng on one occasion, shrewd- 
ly observed of the distressed foreigners then beginning to 
flow into the country — "I wish that we could collect to- 
gether such valuable persons in this kmgdom as it would 
be the means of insuring its prosperity." Very few years 
passed before Latimer's wish was fully realized ; and there 
was scarcely a town of any importance in England in which 
foreign artisans were not found settled and diligently pur- 
suing their several callings. 

* Meter — Annates Flandtnce^ p. 137. 

t Appendix — Early Settlement of Foreign Artisans in England. 



INFLUX OF FOREIGN ARTISANS. 87 

The immigration of the Protestant Flemings in Edward 
YL's reign was so considerable, that in 1550 the king gave 
them the church in Austin Friars, Broad Street, " to have 
their service in, and for avoiding all sects of Anabaptists and 
the like." The influx continued at such a rate as to inter- 
fere with the employment of the native population, who oc- 
casionally showed a disposition to riot, and even to expel the 
foreigners by violence. In a letter written by Francis Peyto 
to the Earl of "Warwick, then at Rome, the following passage 
occurs : " Five or six hundred men waited upon the mayor 
and aldermen, complaining of the late influx of strangers, 
and that, by reason of the great dearth, they can not live 
for these strangers, whom they were determined to Mil up 
through the realm if they found no remedy. To pacify them, 
the mayor and aldermen caused an esteame to be made of 
all strangers in London, which showed an amount of forty 
thousand, besides women and children, for the most part 
heretics fled out of other countries."* Although this esti- 
mate was probably a gross exaggeration, there can be no 
doubt that by this time a large number of the exiles had 
arrived and settled in London and other English towns. 

The influx of the persecuted Protestants, however, did not 
fully set in until about ten years later, about the beginning 
of the reign of Elizabeth. The fugitives, in the extremity to 
which they were reduced, naturally made for that part of the 
English coast which lay the nearest to Flanders and France. 
Li 1561, a considerable body of fugitive Flemings landed 
near Deal, and subsequently settled at the then decayed 
town of Sandwich. The queen was no sooner informed of 
their landing than she wrote to the mayor, jurats, and com- 
monalty of the burgh, enjoining them to give liberty to the 
foreigners to settle there and carry on theii' respective trades. 
She recommended the measure as calculated to greatly ben- 
efit the town by " plantynge in the same men of knowledge 
in sundry handycraffcs," in which they " were very skilful ;" 
* Calendar of State Papers^ Foreign Series, 1547-53. 



88 , SETTLEMENTS OF TEE REFUGEES. 

and her majesty more particularly enjoined that the trades 
the foreign artisans were to carry on were " the makinge of 
says, bays, and other cloth, which hath not been used to be 
made in this our realme of Englonde." 

Other landings of Flemings took place about the same time 
at Harwich, at Yarmouth, at Dover, and other towns on the 
southeast coast. Some settled at the places where they had 
landed, and began to pursue their several branches of indus- 
try, while" others proceeded to London, l^orwich, Maidstone^ 
Canterbury, and other inland towns, where the local author- 
ities gave them like protection and succor. 

The year after the arrival of the Flemings at Sandwich, the 
inhabitants of the little sea-port of Rye, on the coast of Sus- 
sex, were thrown into a state of commotion by the sudden 
arrival of a number of destitute French people jfrom the op- 
posite coast. Some came in open boats, others in sailing ves- 
sels. They were of all classes and conditions, and among 
them were many women and children. They had fled from 
their own country in great haste, and were nearly all alike 
destitute. Some crossed the Channel in mid-winter, braving 
the stormiest weather ; and when they reached the English 
, shore they usually fell upon their knees and thanked God for 
their dehverance. 

In May, 1562, we find John Toung, mayor of Rye, writing 
to Sir Wilham Cecil, the queen's chief secretary, as follows : 
"May it please your honor, there is daily great resort of 
Frenchmen here, insomuch as already there is esteemed to 
be 500 persons ; and we be in great want of corn for their and 
our sustentation, by reason the country adjoining is barren. 
.... Also may it please your honor, after night and this day 
is come two shippis of Dieppe into this haven, fall of many 
people."* 

It will be remembered that Rye is situated at the south- 
western extremity of the great Romney Marsh ; and as no 
com was grown in the neighborhood, the wheat consumed in 
* Domestic State Papers— Elizabeth, 1562. No. 35. 



LANDINGS OF PERSECUTED PROTESTANTS. 89 

the place was all brought thither by sea, or from a distance 
inland over the then almost impassable roads of Sussex. The 
townspeople of Rye nevertheless bestirred themselves in aid 
of the poor reiugees. They took them into their houses, fed 
them, and supplied their wants as well as they could; but 
the fugitives continued to arrive in such numbers that the 
provisions of the place soon began to run short. 

These landings continued during the summer of 1562 ; and 
even as late as N"ovember the mayor again wrote to Cecil : 
" May it please your honor to be advertised that the third 
day of the present month, at twelve of the clocke, there ar- 
rived a bote from Dieppe, with Frenchmen, women, and chil- 
dren, to the number of a hundred and fiftye ; there being a 
great number also which were here before." And as late as 
the 10th of December, the French people still flying for ref- 
uge, though winter had already set in severely, the mayor 
again wrote that another boat had arrived with " maney poor 
people, as well men and women as children, which were of 
Rouen and Dieppe." 

Six years passed, and again, in 1568, we find another boat- 
load of fugitives from France landing at Rye: "Monsieur 
Gamayes, with his wife and children and ten strangers ; and 
Captain Sows, with his wife and two servants, who had all 
come out of France, as they said, for the safeguard of their 
lives." Four years later, in 1572, there was a farther influx of 
refugees at Rye, the mayor again writing to Lord Burleigh, 
informing him that between the 27th of August and the 4th 
of November no fewer than 641 had landed. The records 
have been preserved of the names and callings of most of the 
immigrants, from which it appears that they were of all ranks 
and conditions, including gentlemen, merchants, doctors of 
physic, ministers of religion, students, schoolmasters, trades- 
men, mechanics, artisans, shipwrights, mariners, and laborers. 
Among the fugitives were also several widows, who had fled 
with their children across the sixty miles of sea which there 
divide France and England, sometimes by night in open 



90 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

boats, braving the fury of the winds and waves in their eag- 
erness to escape.* 

The mayor of Rye made appeals to the queen for help, and 
especially for provisions, which from time to time ran short, 
and the help was at once given. Collections were made for 
the relief of the destitute refugees in many of the churches in 
England, as well as Scotland ;f and, among others, we find 
the refugee Flemings at Sandwich giving out of their slender 
means " a benefaction to the poor Frenchmen who have left 
their country for conscience' sake. "J 

These landings continued for many years. The people 
came flying from various parts of France and Flanders — 
cloth-makers from Bruges and Antwei'p, lace-makers from 
Valenciennes, cambric-makers from Cambray, glass-makers 
from Paris, stuff-weavers from Meaux, merchants and trades- 
men from Rouen, and shipwrights and mariners from Dieppe 
and Havre. As the fugitives continued to land, they were 
sent inland as speedily as possible, to make room for new- 
comers, as the household accommodation of the little towns 
along the English coast was but limited. From Rye, many 
proceeded to London to join their countrymen who had set- 
tled there ; others went forward to Canterbury, to South- 
ampton, to !N"orwich, and the other towns where Walloon 
congregations had already been established. A body of them 
settled at Winchelsea, an ancient town, formerly of much im- 
portance,§ on the south coast, though now left high and dry 
inland. 

* W. DuRRANT Cooper — Paper in Sussex Archceological Collections^ vol. 
xiii.jp. 179, entitled "The Protestant Refugees in Sussex." 

t James Melville, in his diary, mentions that subscriptions were raised for 
French Protestants in indigent circumstances in 1575 ; and Calderwood has 
a similar notice in 1622. % Borough Records of Sandwich, 1572. 

§ It will be remembered that Thackeray, who was fond of visiting Winchel- 
sea, laid the early scenes of his novel oi Denis Duval among the French im- 
migrants of the place. Winchelsea, now a village amid ruins, was once a 
flourishing sea-port. The remains of the vaults and warehouses where the 
merchants' goods were stored are still pointed out, and the wharves may still 
be seen where ships discharged their cargoes, lying with their broadsides to 
the "shore. The place is now some miles from the sea, and sheep and cattle 
graze over a wide extent of marsh-land, over which the tide formerly washed. 



ARRIVALS AT DOVER. 91 

Many fugitives also landed at Dover, wMcli was a con- 
venient point for both France and Flanders. Some of the 
immigrants passed through to Canterbury and London, while 
others settled permanently in the place. Early in the seven- 
teenth century a census was taken of the foreigners residing 
in Dover, when it was found that there were seventy-eight 
persons " which of late came out of France by reason of the 
troubles there.'' The description of them is interesting, as 
showing the classes to which the exiles principally belonged. 
There were two " preachers of G-od's Word ;" three physi- 
cians and surgeons ; two advocates ; two esquires ; three 
merchants; two schoolmasters; thirteen drapers, grocers, 
brewers, butchers, and other trades ; twelve mariners ; eight 
weavers and wool-combers ; twenty-five widows, " makers of 
bone-lace and spinners;" two maidens; one woman, desig- 
nated as the wife of a shepherd; one button-maker ; one gar- 
dener ; and one undescribed male.* There were at the same 
time settled m Dover thuteen Walloon exiles, of whom five 
were merchants, three mariners, and the others of different 
trades. 

In the mean time, the body of Flemings who had first set- 
tled at Sandwich began to show signs of considerable pros- 
perity. The local authorities had readily responded to the 
wishes of Queen Elizabeth, and did what she required. They 
appointed two markets to be held weekly for the sale of then* 
cloths, in making which we very shortly find them busily oc- 
cupied. When Archbishop Parker visited Sandwich in 1563, 
he took notice of" the French and Dutche, or both," who had 
settled in the town, and wrote to a friend at court that the 
refugees were as godly on the Sabbath days as they were in- 
dustrious on week-days ; observing that such " profitable and 
gentle strangers ought to be welcome, and not to be grudged 
at."t 

Before the arrival of the Flemings, Sandwich had been a 
poor and decayed place. It was originally a town of consider- 

* Dom. Co/.— James I., 1622. t Stiype's Par/cer, p. 139. 



SETTLE]\€ENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 



able importance, and one of the Cinque Ports. But when 
the River Stour became choked with silt, the navigation, on 
which it had before depended, was so seriously impeded that 
its trade soon fell into decay, and the inhabitants were re- 
duced to great poverty. -N'o sooner, however, had the first 
colony of Flemings, above four hundred in number, settled 
there under the queen's protection, than the empty houses 
were occupied, the town became instinct with new life, and 
was more than restored to its former importance. The arti- 
sans set up their looms, and began diligently to work at the 
manufacture of sayes, bayes, and other kinds of cloth, which 
met with a ready sale, the London merchants resorting to the 
bi-weekly markets, and buying up the goods at remunerative 
prices. 

The native population also shared in the general prosper- 
ity, learning from the strangers the art of cloth-making, and 
becoming competitors with them for the trade. Indeed, be- 
fore many years had passed, the townspeople, forgetful of the 
benefits they owed to the foreign artisans, became jealous, 
and sought to impose upon them special local taxes. On this 
the Flemings memorialized the queen, who again stood their 
jfiriend ; and, on her intercession,, the corporation were at 
length induced to relieve them of the unjust burden.* At 
this time they constituted about one third of the entire pop- 
ulation of the town; and when Queen Elizabeth visited Sand- 
wich in 1573, it is recorded that "against the school-house, 
upon the new turfed wall, and upon a scaffold made upon 

* The memorial, which is still preseiTcd amOng the town records, con- 
cludes with the following prayer: "Which condition (viz., the local imposi- 
tion on the foreign settlers) is suche, that by means of their chardges they 
should finally be secluded and syndered from the hability of those manifolde 
and necessary contributions which yet in this our exile are practised amongst 
us, as well towards the maintenance of the ministry of God's word as lyke- 
wise in the sustentation of our poore, besydes the chardges first above re- 
hearsed : performyng therefore our foresayde humble petition, we shall be 
the more moved to directe our warmest prayers to our mercyfull God, that of 
his heavenly grace he will beatify your common weall more and more, 
grauntynge to ytt his spiritual and temporal blessyngs, which he gracefully 
powreth uppon them that showe favour and consolation to the poore afflicted 
straungers." — Boys' Histori/ of Sandwich, -p. 7 ii. 



THE FLEMINGS AT SANDWICH. 93 

the wall of the school-house yard, were divers children, to 
the number of a hundred or six score, all spinning of fine bag 
yam, a thing well liked of both her Majesty and of the No- 
bility and Ladies."* 

The Protestant exiles at Sandwich did not, however, con- 
fine themselves to cloth-making,t but engaged in various oth- 
er branches of industry. Some of them were millers, who 
erected the first wind-mills near the town in which they plied 
their trade. Two potters from Delft began the pottery man- 
ufacture. Others were smiths, brewers, hatmakers, cai-pen- 
ters, or shipwrights. Thus trade and population increased ; 
new buildings arose on all sides, until Sandwich became al- 
most transformed into a Flemish town; and to this day, 
though fallen again into comparative decay, the quaint, for- 
eign-looking aspect of the place never fails to strike the mod- 
em visitor with surprise. 

Among other branches of industry introduced by the Flem- 
ings at Sandwich, that of gardening is worthy of notice. The 
people of Flanders had long been famous for their horticul- 
ture, and one of the first things which the foreign settlers did 
on arriving in the place was to turn to account the excellent 
qualities of the soil in the neighborhood, so well suited for 
gardening purposes. Though long before practiced by the 
monks, gardening had become almost a lost art in England ; 
and it is said that Katherine, queen of Henry VUJL, unable to 
obtain a salad for her dinner in all England, had her table 
supplied from the Low Countries.^: The first Flemish gar- 

* Antiquarian Repertory, iv., 65. 

t The principal trades which they followed were connected with the man- 
ufacture of cloths of different kinds. Thus, of 351 Flemish householders 
resident in Sandwich in 1582, 86 were bay-makers, 74 bay-weavers, 17 
fullers, 24 linsey-wolsey weavers, and 24 wool-combers. 

J Vegetables were formerly so scarce that they were salted down. Even 
in the sixteenth century a cabbage from Holland was deemed an acceptable 
present (Fox's LiJ^ of James II., 205). Hull then carried on a thriving im- 
port trade in cabbages and onions. The rarity of vegetables in the country 
may be infen-ed from the fact that in 1595 a sum equal to twenty shillings 
was paid at that port for six cabbages and a few carrots by the purveyor for 
the Clifford family (Whitaker — History of Craven, 321). Hartlib, writing 
in 1650, says that an old man then living remembered "the first gardener 



94 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

d^ns proved higlily successful. The cabbage, carrots, and 
celery produced by tbe foreigners met with so ready a sale, 
and were so much in demand in London itself, that a body 
of gardeners shortly removed from Sandwich and settled at 
Wandsworth, Battersea, and Bermondsey, where many of the 
rich garden-grounds first planted by the Flemings continue 
to this day the most productive in the neighborhood of the 
metropolis. 

As might naturally be expected, by far the largest propor- 
tion of the Protestant exiles — Flemish and French — settled 
in London — London, the world's asylum — the refuge of the 
persecuted in all lands, whether for race, or politics, or relig- 
ion — a city of Celts, Danes, and Saxons — of Jews, Germans, 
French, and Flemings, as well as of English — an aggregate 
of men of all European countries, and probably one of the 
most composite populations to be found in the world. Large 
numbers of French, Germans, and Flemings, of the industri- 
ous classes, had already taken refuge in London from the po- 
litical troubles which had long raged abroad. About the be- 
ginning of the reign of Henry ViJLL. so many foreigners had 
settled in the western parts of London that " Tottenham is 
turned French" passed into a proverb ;* and now the relig- 

who came into Surrey to plant cabbages and cauliflowers, and to sow Jtumips, 
carrots, and parsnips, and to sow early pease — all of which at that time were 
great wonders, we having few or none in England but what came from Hol- 
land or Flanders." It is also supposed, though it can not be exactly ascer- 
tained, that the Protestant Walloons introduced the cultivation of the hop in 
Kent, bringing slips of the plant with them from Artois. The old distich — 

" Hops, Reformation, Bajrs, and Beer, 
Came into England all in one year"— 

marks the period (about 1524) when the first English hops were planted. 
There is a plot of land at Bourne, near Canterbury, where there is known to 
have been a hop-plantation in the reign of Elizabeth. Eeginald Scot, the 
author of The Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden, speaks of " the trade of 
tbe Flemminge" (i.e., his method of culture), and his "ostes at Peppering" 
as "a profy table patterne and a necessarie instruction for as manie as shall 
have to doe therein." Another kind of crop introduced by the Flemings at 
Sandwich was canary-grass, which still continues to be grown on the neigh- 
boring farms, and is indeed almost peculiar to the district. It may be add- 
ed that to this day the * * Sandwich celery" maintains its reputation. 

* Tottenham is turned French. — About the beginning of Henry VIH. French 
mechanics swarmed in England, to the great prejudice of English artisans, 



THE FLEMINGS IN SO UTHWARK. 95 

•>. , 

ious persecutions which raged abroad compelled foreigners 
of various nations to take refuge in London in still greater 
numbers than at any former period. 

Fortunately for London, as for England, the men who now 
fled thither for refuge were not idle, dissolute, and ignorant, 
but peaceable, gentle, and laborious. Though they were 
poor, they were not pauperized, but were thrifty and self- 
helping, and, above all things, eager in their desire to earn 
an honest living. They were among the most skilled and in- 
telligent inhabitants of the countries which had driven them 
forth. Had they been weak men, they would have gone with 
the stream as others did, and conformed ; but they were men 
with convictions, earnest and courageous, and ready to brave 
all perils in their determiaation to find some land of refuge 
in which they might be permitted to worship God according 
to the dictates of their conscience. 

Of the Flemings and French who settled in London, the 
greater part congregated in special districts, for the con- 
venience of carrying on their trades together. Thus a large 
number of the Flemings settled in South wark and Bermond- 
sey, and began many branches of industry which continue 
there to this day, Southwark being still the principal manu- 
facturing district of London. There was a quarter in Ber- 
mondsey, known as " The Borgeney," or " Petty Burgundy," 
because of the foreigners who inhabited it. Joiner's Street, 
which still exists in name, lay in the district, and was so 
called because of its being almost wholly occupied by Flem- 
ish joiners, who were skilled in all kinds of carpentry.* An- 
other branch of trade begun by the Flemings in. Bermondsey 

which caused the insurrection in London on Ill-Mayday, 1517. — England's 
Worthies in Church and State, Lond., 1684, p. 471. 

* "At St. 01ave's,in Southwark, yoa shall learn, among the joyners, what 
inlayes and marquetrie weare. Inlaye (as the word imports) is a layinp of 
coloured wood in their wainscot works, bedsteads, cupboards, chayres, and the 
like." — Bohon, Elements o/Armones, 1610. 

"The Flemish burying-ground," appropriated to the foreigners as a place 
of sepulture, was situated near the south end of London Bridge. It is now- 
covered by the approach to the London Bridge Railway Station. 



96 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

was the manufacture of felts or hats. Tanneries and brew- 
eries were also started by them, and carried on with great 
success. Henry Leek, originally Hoek or Hook,* from Wesel, 
was one of the principal brewers of his time, to whose philan- 
thropic bequest Southwark owes the foundation of the ex- 
cellent free-school of St. Olave's — one of the best of its class. 

Another important settlement of the Flemings was that at 
Bow, where they established dye-works on a large scale. 
Before their time, white cloth of English manufacture was 
usually sent abroad to be dyed, after which it was reimport- 
ed and sold as Flemish cloth. The best known among the 
early dyers were Peter de Croix and Dr. Kepler, the latter of 
whom established the first dye-work in England ; and cloth 
of " Bow dye" soon became famous. Another body of the 
refugees settled at Wandsworth, and began several branches 
of industry, such as the manufacture of felts, and the making 
of brass plates for culinary utensils, which Aubrey says they 
*' kept a mystery." One Fromantel introduced the manufac- 
ture of pendulum or Dutch clocks, which shortly came into 
common use. At Mortlake the French exiles began the 
manufacture of arras, and at Fulham of tapestry. The art 
of printing paper-hangings was introduced by some artisans 
from Rouen, where it had been originally practiced ; and 
many other skilled workers in metal settled in different parts 
of the metropolis, as cutlers, jewelers, and makers of mathe- 
matical instruments, in which the French and Flemish work- 
men then greatly excelled. f 

The employment given to the foreign artisans seems to 

* Many of the foreigners adopted names of English sound, so that it is 
now difficult to trace them amid the population in which they have become 
merged. Thus, in the parish church of Allhallows, Barking, we find the 
monument of a distinguished Fleming, one Koger Haestrecht, who changed 
his name to James. He was the founder of the family of James, of Ightham 
Court, in Kent. 

t A French refugee, named Briot, was the first to introduce the coining- 
press, which was a French invention, into England. He was appointed chief 
engraver to the Mint ; and forty years after his time, in the reign of Charles 
n., another Frenchman, named Blondeau, was selected to superintend the 
stamping of our English money. 



THE FOREIGN MERCHANTS IN LONDON. 97 

have excited considera'ble discontent among the London 
tradesmen, who from time to time beseeched the interfer- 
ence of the corporations and of Parliament. Thus, in 1576, 
we find the London shoemakers petitioning for a commission 
of inquiry as to the alien shoemakers who were carrying on 
their trade in the metropolis. Li 1586, the London appren- 
tices raised a riot in the city against the foreigners ; and 
several youths of the Plasterer's Company were apprehended 
and committed to Newgate by order of the queen and coun- 
cil A few years later, in 1592, the London freemen and shop- 
keepers complained to Parliament that the strangers were 
spoiling their trades, and a bill was brought in for the pur- 
pose of restrainmg them. The bill was strongly supported 
•by Sir Walter Raleigh, who complained bitterly of the stran- 
gers; but it was opposed by Cecil and the queen's ministers; 
and though it passed the Commons, it failed through the dis- 
solution of Parliament, so that the refugees were left to the 
enjoyment of their former protection and hospitality.* 

Many of the foreigners established themselves as merchants 
in the city, and soon became known as leading men in com- 
mercial affairs. Several of them had already been distin- 
guished as merchants in their own country, and they brought 
with them a spirit and enterprise which iuflised quite a new 
life into London business. Among the leading foreign mer- 
chants of Elizabeth's time we recognize the names of Houblon, 
Palavicino, De Malines, Corsellis, Van Peine, Tryan, Buskell, 
Cursini, De Best, and Cotett. And that they prospered by 
the exercise of their respective callings may be inferred from 
the circumstance that when, in 1588, Queen Elizabeth pro- 
ceeded to raise a loan in the city by voluntary subscriptions, 
thirty-eight of the foreign merchants subscribed among them- 
selves £5000 in sums of £100 and upward. 

The accounts given of the numbers of the exiles from Flan- 
ders and France who then settled in London are very imper- 
fect, yet they enable us to form some idea of the extensive 
* Burn — History of the Protestant Refugees,"^. 10. 

G 



98 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

character of the immigration. Thus, a return of the popula- 
tion, made in 1571, the year before the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, shows that in the city of London alone (exclusive 
of the large number of strangers settled rot Southwark, at 
Bow, and outside the liberties) there were, of foreigners be- 
longmg to the English Church, 889 ; to the Dutch, French, 
and Italian churches, 1763 ; certified by their elders, but not 
presented by the wards, 1828 ; not yet joined to any particu- 
lar church, 2663 ; " strangers that do confesse themselves that 
their comyng hether was onlie to seek worck for their lyv- 
inge," 2561 ; or a total of 9704 persons.* From another re- 
turn of about the same date, in which the numbers are differ- 
ently given, we obtain some idea of the respective nationali- 
ties of the refugees. Out of the 4594 strangers then return- 
ed as resident in the city of London, 3643 are described as 
Dutch (e. 6., Flemings) ; 657 French; 233 Italians; and 53 
Spaniards and Portuguese.! 

That the foreign artisans continued to resort to England in 
increasing numbers is apparent from a farther census taken 
in 1621, from which it appears that there were then 10,000 
strangers in the city of London alone, carrying on 121 differ- 
ent trades. Of 1343 persons whose occupations are specified, 
there were found to be 11 preachers, 16 schoolmasters, 349 
weavers, 183 merchants, 148 tailors, 64 sleeve-makers, 43 shoe- 
makers, 39 dyers, 37 brewers, 35 jewelers, 25 diamond-cutters, 
22 cutlers, 20 goldsmiths, 20 joiners, 15 clock-makers, 12 silk- 
throwsters, 10 glass-makers, besides hemp-dressers, thread- 
makers, button-makers, coopers, engravers, gun-makers, paint- 
ers, smiths, watch-makers, and other skilled craftsmen. J 

IsTumerous other settlements of the refugees took place 

* State Papers, Dom. — Elizabeth, vol. 84, anno 1571. It appears from the 
Bishop of London's certificate of 1567 (four years before), that the number 
of persons of foreign birth then settled in London was 4851, and 512 French. 
There were at the same time in London 36 Scots, 128 Italians, 23 Portuguese, 
54 Spaniards, 10 Venetians, 2 Blackamoors, and 2 Greeks. 

t State Papers, Dom. — Elizabeth, vol. 82, anno 1571. 

X Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens resident in England, 1618-88. 
Edited by William Durrant Cooper, F.S.A., Camden Society's Papers, 1862. 



FOREIGN MERCHANTS IN NORWICH. 99 

througliout England, more particularly in the southern coun- 
ties. " The foreign manufacturers," says Hasted, " chose their 
situations with great judgment, distributing themselves with 
the queen's license throughout England, so as not to interfere 
too much with each other."* One of the most important of 
such settlements was that formed at Norwich, where they 
founded and carried on many important branches of trade. 

Although Norwich had been originally indebted mainly to 
foreign artisans for its commercial and manufacturing import- 
ance, the natives of this city were among the first to turn 
upon their benefactors. The local guilds, in their usual nar- 
row spii'it, passed stringent regulations directed against the 
foreign artisans, who had originally taught them their trade. 
The jealousy of the native workmen was also roused, and 
riots were stii-red up against the Flemings, many of whom 
left Norwich for Leeds and Wakefield in Yorkshii*e, where 
they prosecuted the woolen-manufacture fi-ee from the restric- 
tions of the trades-unions,! while others left the country for 
Holland, to carry on their trades in the free towns of that 
country. 

The consequence was that Norwich, left to its native enter- 
prise and industiy, gradually fell into a state of stagnation 
and decay. Its population rapidly diminished ; a large pro- 
portion of the houses stood empty ; riots among the distress- 
ed workpeople were of frequent occurrence ; and it was even 
mooted in Parliament whether the place should not be razed. 
Under such cii'cumstances, the corporation determined to call 
to their aid the sldll and industry of the exiled Protestant 
artisans now flocking into the country. In the year 1564, a 
deputation of the citizens, headed by the mayor, waited on 

* Hasted, History of Kent, x., p. 160. 

t In the reign of Henry VII. an attempt was made by a body of Flemings 
to establish the manufacture of felt hats at Norwich. To evade the fiscal 
regulations of the guilds, they settled outside the boundaries of the city. But 
nn act having been passed enjoining that hats were only to be manufactured 
in some city, borough, or mai-ket-town, the Flemings were thereby brought 
under the bondage of the guilds ; the making of hats by them was suppress- 
ed ; and the Flemish hat-makers left the neighborhood. 



100 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

the Duke of IsTorfolk at his palace in the city, and asked his 
assistance in ohtaining a settlement in the place of a body of 
Flemish workmen. The duke used his influence with this 
object, and succeeded in inducing- some 300 Dutch and Wal- 
loon families to settle in the place at his charge, and to carry 
on then- trades under a license granted by the queen. 

The exiles were very shortly enabled not only to maintain 
themselves by their industry, but to restore the city to more 
than its former prosperity. The houses which had been 
standing empty were again tenanted, the native population 
were again fully employed, and the adjoining districts shared 
in the general prosperity. In the course of a few years, as 
many as 3000 of the foreign workmen had settled in the city, 
and many entirely new branches of trade were introduced 
and successfully carried on by them. Besides the manufac- 
ture of sayes, bayes, serges, arras, mouchade, and bombazmes, 
they introduced the striping and flowering of silks and dam- 
asks, which shortly became one of the most thriving branches 
of trade in the place. The manufacture of beaver and felt 
hats, before imported from abroad, was also successfully es- 
tablished. One Anthony Solen introduced the art of print- 
ing, for which he was awarded the freedom of the city. Two 
potters from Antwerp, Jasper Andries and Jacob Janson, 
started a pottery, though in a very humble way.* Other 
Flemings introduced the art of gardening in the neighbor- 

* Stowe makes the following reference to these men in his Survey of Lon- 
don : " About the year 1567 Jasper Andries and Jacob Janson, potters, came 
away from Antwerp to avoid the persecution there, and settled themselves in 
Norwich, where they followed their trade, making galley paving-tiles and 
apothecaries' vessels, and others, very artificially. Anno 1570 they removed 
to London. They set forth, in a petition to Queen Elizabeth, that they were 
the first that brought in and exercised the said science in this realm, and 
were at great charges before they could find the materials in the realm. 
They beseeched her, in recompense of their gi'eat cost and charges, that she 
would gi'ant them house-room in or without the liberties of London by 
the water-side." The brothers Elers, afterward, in 1688, began the manu- 
facture of a better sort of potteiy in Stafibrdshire. They were natives of 
Nuremberg in Germany. In 1710 they removed from Staffordshire, and set- 
tled in Lambeth or Chelsea. To these brothers is ascribed the invention of 
the salt-glaze. 



CONSPIRA or A GAINST TEE FLEMINGS. 101 

hood, and culinary stuffs became more plentiful in Norwich 
than in any other town or city in England. The general re- 
sult was abundant employment, remunerative trade, cheap 
food, and great prosperity; Bishop Parkhurst declaring his 
persuasion that "these blessings from God have happened 
by reason of the godly exiles who were here so kmdly har- 
bored." 

But not so very kindly after all. As before, the sour na- 
tive heart grew jealous ; and notwithstanding the admitted 
prosperity of the place, the local population began to mutter 
discontent against the foreigners, who had been mainly its 
cause. Like Jeshurun, the people had waxed fat and they 
kicked. It is true, the numbers of Dutch, French, and Wal- 
loons in N'orwich had become very considerable, by reason 
of the continuance of the persecutions abroad, which drove 
them across the Channel in increasing numbers. But who 
so likely to give them succor and shelter as their own coun- 
trymen, maintaining themselves by the exercise of their skill 
and industry in the English towns ? The opposition which 
displayed itself against the foreign artisans is even said to 
have been encouraged by some of the " gentlemen" of the 
neighborhood, who in 1570 set on foot a conspiracy, with the 
object of expelling them by force from the city and realm. 
But the conspiracy was discovered in time. Its leader and 
iQStigator, John Throgmorton, was seized and executed, with 
two others ; and the strangers were thenceforward permitted 
to pursue their respective callings in peace. 

Whatever may have been the shortcomings of Elizabeth 
in other respects, she certainly proved herself the steadfast 
friend and protector of the Protestant exiles from first to 
last. Her conduct with reference to the Norwich conspira- 
cy clearly shows the spirit which influenced her. In a letter 
written by her from the palace at Greenwich, dated the 19th 
of March, 1570, she strongly expostulated with the citizens 
of Norwich against the jealousy entertained by them against 
the authors of their prosperity. She reminded them of the 



102 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

advantages they had derived from the settlement among 
them of so many skilled artisans, who were inhabiting the 
houses which had before stood desolate, and were furnisliing 
employment to large numbers of persons who must other- 
wise have remained unemployed. She therefore entreated 
and enjoined them to continue their favors " to the poor men 
of the Dutch nation, who, seeing the persecution lately begun 
in their country for the trewe religion, hath fledd into this 
realm for succour, and be now placed in the city of Norwich, 
and hath hitherto been favourablye and jintely ordered, 
which the Queen's Majestic, as a mercifull and religious 
Prince, doth take in very good part, praeing you to continue 
your favour unto them so long as they shall lyve emongste 
you qxiyetlye and obedyently to God's trewe religion, and to 
Her Majesty's lawes, for so one chrystian man (in charitie) is 
bound to help another, especially them who do suffer afflix- 
ion for the gospelle's sake."* 

* The following is a copy of a document in the State Paper Office (Dom. 
Eliz., 1561), giving an account of *'the benefite receyved by the strangers in 
Norwich for the space of tenne yeres." Several passages of the paper have 
been obliterated by age : 

^^Inprimis, They brought a grete comoditie thether — ^viz., the making of 
bayes, moucades, grograynes, all sorts of tufts, &c. — w<='» were not made there 
before, whereby they do not onely set on worke their owne people, but [do 
also] set on worke o'- owne people w^^'in the cittie, as alsoe a grete nomber of 
people nere xx'' myles aboute the cittie, to the grete relief of the [poorer] sorte 
there. 

" Item, By their means C- cittie [is well inhabited, o""-] decayed houses re- 
edified & repaired that [were in rewyn and more wolde be]. And now good 
rents [are] paide for the same. 

"/ie?n. The marchants by their comoditi[es have] and maye have grete 
trade as well w'^in the realme as w^^oute the [realme], being in good estima- 
con in all places. 

"iiew, It cannot be, but whereas a nomber of people be but the one re- 
ceyve comoditie of the other as well of the cittie as men of the countrie. 

"7/e?/z, They be contributors to all paym*% as subsidies, taskes, watches, 
contribusions, mynisters' wagis, etc, 

"Item, 0^- owne people do practice & make suche comodities as the stran- 
gers do make, whereby the youthe is set on worke and kept from idlenes. 

"Item, They digge & delve a nomber of acres of grounde, & do soweflaxe 
& do make it out in lynnen clothe, w'=i> set many on worke. 

"Item, They digge & delve a grete quantitie of grounde for rootes, [w'^''] 
is a gi-ete succor & sustenance for the [pore], both for themselves as for all 
others of cittie and countrie. 



NEW INDUSTRIES ESTABLISHED. 103 

A census was shortly after taken of the foreigners settled 
in Norwich,- when it was ascertained that they amounted to 
about 4000, including women and children ; and that they 
were effectually protected in the exercise of their respective 
callings, and continued to prosper, may be inferred from the 
circumstance that, when the numbers were again taken, about 
ten years later, it was found that the foreign community had 
increased to 4679 persons. 

It would occupy too much space to enter into a detailed ac- 
count of the settlement of the industrious strangers 'through- 
out the country, and to describe the various branches of 
manufacture which they introduced in addition to those al- 
ready described. " The persecution for religion in Brabant 
and Flanders," says Hasted, " communicated to all the Prot- 
estant parts of Europe the paper, woollen and other valuable 
manufactures of Flanders and France, almost peculiar at that 
time to these countries, and till then in vain practised else- 
where."* Although the manufacture of cloth had already 
made some progress in England, only the coarser sorts were 
produced, the best being imported from abroad ; and it was 
not until the settlement among us of the Flemish weavers 
that this branch of industry became one of national import- 
ance. They spread themselves through the towns and vil- 
lages in the west of England, as well as throughout the north, 
and wherever the woolen weavers set up their looms they 
carried on a prosperous 1;;rade.f Among other places in the 

*^Item, They live holy of themselves w^'^out [o'". chardge], and do begge of 
no man, & do sustayne [all their owne] poore people. 

" And to conclude, they for the [moste pte feare] God & diligently & labo- 
riously attende upon their several occupations, they obay all maiestratis & all 
good lawes & ordynances, they live peaceblie amonge themselves & towards 
all men, & we thinke o'"- cittie happy to enioye them." 

* Hasted, History of Kent, x., p. 160. 

t Puller specifies the following textile manufactures as having been estab- 
lished by the immigrants : 

In Norwich, cloths, fustians, etc. In Gloucestershire > cloths 

" Sudbm-y, baizes. " Worcestershire (" " ^• 

" Colchester, sayes and serges " Wales, Welsh friezes. 

" Kent, Kentish broad-cloths.. " Westmoreland, Kendal cloth. 

" Devonshire, kerseys. " Lancashire, coatings or cottons. 



104 SETTLEMENTS OF TEE REFUGEES. 

west, they settled at Worcester, Evesham, Droitwitch, Kid- 
derminster, Stroud, and Glastonbury.* In the east they set- 
tled at Colchester,! Hertford, Stamford, and other places. In 
the north we find them establishing themselves at Manches- 
ter, Bolton, and Halifax, where they made " coatings fX . and 
at Kendal, where they made cloth caps and woolen stock- 
ings. The native population gradually learned to practice 
the same branches of manufacture ; new sources of employ- 
ment were opened up to them ; and in the course of a few 
years, England, instead of depending upon foreigners for its 
supply of cloth, was not only able to produce sufficient for its 
own use, but to export the article in considerable quantities 
abroad. 

Other Flemings introduced the art of thread and lace mak- 
ing. A body of them who settled at Maidstone in 1567 ear- 



In Yorkshire, Halifax cloths. In Berks \ , , 

*' Somerset, Taunton serges. " Sussex ) 

" Hants, cloth. 

* A settlement of Flemish woolen-weavers took place at Glastonbury as 
early as 1549, through the influence of the Duke of Somerset, who advanced 
them money to buy wool, at the same time providing them with houses and 
small allotments of land from the domain of the Abbey, which the king had 
granted him. After the fall of the duke the weavers were protected by the 
Privy Council, and many documents relating to them are to be found in the 
State Paper Office.— (Edwd. VL, Dom. xiii., 71-77, and xiv., 3-14 and 55.) 

t Colchester became exceedingly prosperous in consequence of the settle- 
ment of the Flemish artisans there. In 1609 it contained as many as 1 300 
Walloons and other persons of foreign parentage, and every house was occu- 
pied. 

X The "coatings" or "cottons" of Lancashire were in the first instance 
but imitations in woolen of the goods known on the Continent by that name ; 
the importation of cotton wool from the Levant having only begun, and that 
in small quantities, about the middle of the seventeenth' century. "There 
is one fact," says the editor of the Shiittleicorth Papers, "which seems to 
show that the Flemings, after their immigration, had much to do with the 
fulling-mill at Manchester ; for its ordinary name was the ' walken-milne' — 
loalche being the Flemish name for a fulling-mill. So persistent do we find 
this name, that a plot of land occupied by a mill on the banks of the Irk 
still retains its old name of the Walker's Croft (i. c, the fuller's field or 
ground), and in the earlier Manchester directories the fullers were styled 
' walkers.' " — House and Home. Accounts of the Shuttleworth Family (Chetham 
Society Papers, 1856-8), p. 637-8. [The name of Walker, so common in 
Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the clothing districts of the west of England, 
doubtless originated in this calling, which was followed by so considerable a 
portion of the population.] 



NEW IND USTRIES ESTABLISHED. los" 

ried on the thread manufacture, flax spun for the thread-man 
being still known there as "Dutch work." Some lace-makers 
from Alen9on and Valenciennes settled at Cranfield, in Bed- 
fordshire, in 1568 ; after which others settled at Bucking- 
ham, Stony Stratford, and Newport-Pagnell, from whence the 
manufacture gradually extended over the shires of Oxford, 
N'orthampton, and Camhridge. About the same time the 
manufacture of bone-lace, with thread obtained from Ant- 
werp, was introduced into Devonshire by the Flemish exiles, 
who settled in considerable numbers at Honiton, Oolyton, 
and other places, where the trade continued to be carried on 
by their descendants almost to our own time — ^the Flemish 
and French names of Stocker, Murch, Spiller, Genest, May- 
nard, Gerard, Raymunds, Rochett, Kettel, etc., being still 
common in the lace-towns of the west. 

Besides these various branches of textile manufacture, the 
immigrants aj^plied themselves to mining, working in metals, 
salt-making, fish-curing, and other arts, in which they were 
much better skilled than the English then were. Thus we 
find a body of them from the neighborhood of Liege estab- 
lishing themselves at Shotley Bridge, in the neighborhood of 
IsTewcastle-on-Tyne, where they introduced the making of 
steel, and became celebrated for the swords and edge-tools 
which they manufactured. The names of the settlers, some 
of which have been preserved — Ole, Mohl, Yooz, etc. — ^indi- 
cate then* origin, and some of their descendants are still to be 
found residing in the village, under the names of Oley, Mole, 
and such like. 

Mr. Spencer read a paper on the "Manufacture of Steel" 
at' the meeting of the British Association at I^ewcastle in 
186'3, in which he thus referred to these early iron-workers : 

"In the wall of an old two-story dwelling-house, the original materials of 
which are hidden under a coat of rough-cast, there still exists a stone ahove 
the doorway with an inscription in bad German, to the following effect : des. 

HEKREN. SECEN. MACHET. REICH. OHN. ALLF. SOEC. WAN. DVZVGLEICH. IN. 
DEINEM. STAND. TEEVW. VND-LLEISIC. BIST. VND. 'DVEST. WAS. DIR. BE- 



106 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

LOHLEN. 1ST. 1691, of whicli the following is a free translation, showing that 
the original importers of the steel manufacture to the district were probably 
good Lutherans, who had suffered persecution for conscience' sake: "The 
blessing of the Lord makes rich without care, so long as you are industrious 
in your vocation, and do what is ordered you." 

There is, however, a much earlier reference to the immi- 
o-rants in the parish register of Ebchester Church, which con- 
tains the entry of a baptism in 1628 of the daughter of one 
Mathias Wrightson Ole or Oley — the name radicating a 
probable marriage of the grandfather of the child into a na- 
tive family of the name of Wrightson, and thereby marking 
the third generation in the neighborhood. 

Another body of skilled workers in iron and steel settled 
at Sheffield under the protection of the Earl of Shrewsbury, 
on condition that they should take English apprentices and 
instruct them in their trade. What the skill of the Low 
Country iron-workers was will be understood by any one who 
has seen the beautiful specimens of ancient kon-work to be 
met with in Belgium, as, for instance, the exquisite iron can- 
opy over the draw-well in front of the cathedral at Antwerp, 
or the still more elaborate iron gates inclosing the little chap- 
els behind the high altar of the cathedral of St. Bavon, at 
Ghent. Only the Nurembergers, in all Germany, could then 
vie with the Flemings in such kind of work. The effects of 
the instruction given by the Flemish artisans to their Shef- 
field apprentices were soon felt in the impulse which the im- 
provement of their manufactures gave to the trade of the 
town ; and Sheffield acquired a reputation for its productions 
in steel and iron which it retains to this day. 

A body of refugees of the seafaring class established them- 
selves at Yarmouth in 1568, with the queen's license, and 
there carried on the business of fishing with great success. 
Before then, the fish along the English coasts were mostly 
caught by the Dutch, who cured them in Holland, and brought 
them back for sale in the English markets. But shortly aft- 
er the establishment of the fishery at Yarmouth by the Flem- 



RECLAMATION OF DROWNED LANDS, 107 

ings, the home demand was almost entirely supplied by their 
industry. They also introduced the arts of salt-making and 
herring-curing, originally a Flemish invention ; and the trade 
gradually extended to other places, and furnished employ- 
ment to a large number of persons. 

By the enterprise chiefly of the Flemish merchants settled 
in London, a scheme was set on foot for the reclamation of 
the drowned lands in Hatfield Chase and the great level of 
the Fens,* and a large number of laborers assembled under 
Cornelius Yei-muyden to execute the necessary works. They 
were, however, a very different class of men from the modern 
"navvies," for wherever they went they formed themselves 
into congregations, erected churches, and appointed ministers 
to conduct then* worship. Upward of two hundred Flemish 
families settled on the land reclaimed by them in the Isle of 
Axholm; the ships which brought the immigrants up the 
Humber to their new homes being facetiously hailed as " the 
navy of Tarshish." The reclaimers afterward prosecuted 
their labors, under Yermuyden, in the great level of the Fens, 
where they were instrumental in recovering a large extent 
of drowned land, before then a mere watery waste, but now 
among the richest and most fertile land in England. In short, 
wherever the refugees settled they acted as so many mission- 
aries of skilled work, exhibiting the best practical examples 
of diligence, industry, and thrift, and teaching the English 
people in the most effective manner the beginnings of those 
various industrial arts in which they have since acquired so 
much distinction and wealth. 

Besides the numerous settlements of the foreigners through- 
out England, others passed over into L-eland, and settled in 
Dubhn, Waterford, Limerick, Belfast, and other towns. Sir 
Henry Sidney, in the " Memoii- of his Government in Ireland," 
written in 1590, thus speaks of the little colony of refugees 
settled at Swords, near Dublin : " I caused to plant and in- 
habit there about fourtie families of the Reformed Churches 

* Lives of the Engineers, i., 15-65. 



108 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES, 

of the Low Countries, flying thence for religion's sake, in one 
ruinons town called Swords ; and truly, sir, it would have 
done any man good to have seen how diligently they wrought, 
how they re-edified the quite spoiled ould castell of the same 
town, and repayred almost all the same, and how godlie and 
cleanly they, their wiefs, and children lived. They made di- 
aper and tickes for beddes, and other good stuffes for man's 
use ; and as excellent leather of deer skynnes, goat and sheep 
fells, as is made in South warke."* 

In the early part of the reign of James I. many Flemings 
and French obtained grants of naturalization in Ireland ; and 
it was about this time that the Derenzie (now De Rinzy), 
Olfertson (now Olferts), Yanhomrigh, and Yandeleur fami- 
lies settled in that country. The unsettled state of Ireland 
was not encouraging to industry ; nevertheless, the stran- 
gers seem eventually to have obtained a footing and made 
steady progress. 

When the Earl of Strafford was appointed chief deputy in 
the reign of Charles L, he applied himself with much energy 
to the establishnient of the linen manufacture ; sending to 
Holland for flax-seed, and inviting Flemish and French arti- 
sans to settle in Ireland. In order to stimulate the new indus- 
try, the earl himself embarked in it, and expended not less 
than £30,000 of his private fortune in the enterprise. It was 
afterward made one of the grounds of his impeachment that 
" he had obstructed the industry of the country by in troduc- 
ing new and unknown processes into the manufacture of 
flax."f It was nevertheless greatly to the credit of the earl 
that he should have endeavored to improve the industry of 
Ii*eland by introducing the superior processes employed by 
the foreign artisans ; and had he not attempted to turn the 
improved flax manufacture to his own advantage by erecting 
it into a personal monopoly, he might have been entitled to 
regard as a genuine benefactor of Ireland. J 

* See Ulster Journal of ArcJiceology, v., p. 306. 

t Foster, Lives of Eminent British Statesmen, ii., 385. 

X The first Duke of Ormonde, imitating the example of Strafford, in like 



TEE REFUGEES IN SCOTLAND. 109 

I^ot many of the refugees found tlieir way into Scotland.* 
That country was then too poor to hold out much encourage- 
ment to the banished artisans. An attempt was, however, 
made about the beginning of the seventeenth century to in- 
troduce into Scotland the manufacture of cloth; and in 1601, 
seven Flemings were engaged to settle in the country and set 
the work agoing — six of them for serges, and one for broad- 
cloth. But disputes arose among the boroughs as to the 
towns in which the settlers were to be located, during which 
the strangers were " entertained in meat and drink."f At 
length, in 1609, a body of Flemings became settled in the 
Canongate of Edinburg under one Joan "Van Hedan, where 
they engaged in " making, dressing, and litting of stuffis, giv- 
ing great licht and knowledge of their calling to the country 
people."! 

An attempt was also made to introduce the manufacture 
of paper in Scotland about the middle of the seventeenth 
century, and French workmen were introduced for the in- 
struction of the natives. The first mill was erected at Dairy, 
on the Water of Leith ; but, though they succeeded in mak- 
ing gray and blue paper, the speculation does not seem to 
have answered, as we find Alexander Daes, one of the princi- 
pal proprietors, shortly after occupied in showuig an elephant 
about the countiy ! — the first animal of the kind that had 
been seen north of the Tweed. § 

manner established about five hundred immigrants at Chapel Izod, in EjI- 
• kenny, under Colonel Richard Lawrence. He there built houses for the 
weavers, supplying them with looms and raw material, and a considerable 
trade in cordage, sail-cloth, and linen shortly grew up. The duke also set- 
tled large colonies of Walloons at Clonmel, Kilkenny, and Camck-on-Suir, 
where they established, and for some time successfully carried on, the man- 
ufacture of woolen cloths. 

* Michelet, the French historian, says he found at Holyrood the decayed 
tomb-stone of a Frenchman, who had been the first paviour in Edinburg, and 
probably in Scotland. 

t Chambers — Domestic Annals of Scotland, i., p. 351. % Ibid., i., p. 421. 

§ Ibid., ii., p. 390-410. The art of paper-making was not successfully es- 
tablished in Scotland until the middle of the following centuiy. Literature 
must then have been at a low ebb north of the Tweed. In 1683 there was 
only one printing-press in all Scotland ; and when it was proposed to license 
a second printer, the widow of Andrew Anderson, who held the only license, 



110 SETTLEMENTS OF TEE REFUGEES. 

Although the number of foreigners who had migrated from 
Flanders, France, and other European countries into England, 
down to about the middle of the seventeenth century, had 
been very large, it had by no means ceased. Every fresh out- 
burst of persecution abroad was followed by renewed land- 
ings of the persecuted on our shores. Whereas the number 
of persons of foreign birth established in the city of London 
in 1567 included 4851 Flemings and 512 French, it was found, 
ten years later, that the foreigners were more than treble the 
number; and a century later, there were estimated to be not 
fewer than 13,500 refugees of French birth in London alone. 

The policy adopted by the early English kings, and so con- 
sistently pursued by Queen Elizabeth throughout her reign, 
of succoring and protecting industrious exiles flying into En- 
gland for refuge, was followed by James L and by the later 
Stuarts. An attempt was indeed made by Bishop Laud, in 
the reign of Charles L,in 1622, to compel the refugees, who 
were for the most pari; Calvinists, to conform to the English 
Liturgy. On this, the foreign congregations appealed to the 
king, pleading the hospitality extended to them by the nation 
when they had fled from papal persecution abroad, and the 
privileges and exemptions granted to them by Edward YT., 
which had been confirmed by Elizabeth and James, and even 
by Charles L himself. The utmost concession that the king 
would grant was, that those who were born aliens might still 
enjoy the use of their own church service, but that all their 
children born in England should regularly attend the parish 
churches. Even this small concession was limited only to 
the congregation at Canterbury, and measures were taken to 
enforce conformity in the other dioceses.* 

endeavored to keep the new printer (one David Lindsay) out of the trade, 
alleging that she had been previously invested with the sole privilege, and 
that '■'■ one press is sufficiently able to supj^ly all Scotland f" 

* The policy of Laud, by which Charles I. was mainly guided, was essen- 
tially reactionary. His object seemed to be to establish a great ecclesias- 
tical hierarchy in England, with himself as pope. On his appointment as 
Primate of England in 1633, he proceeded to assimilate the ritual and cere- 
monies of the Church to the Roman model. Strict rules were enjoined with 



LAUD AND THE PROTESTANT REFUGEES. Ill 

The refugees thus found themselves exposed to the same 
Mnd of persecution from which they had originally fled into 
England, and, rather than endure it, several thousands of 
them left the country, abandoning their nevs^ homes, and 
again risking the loss of all rather than give up theu* relig- 
ion. The result was the emigration of about a hundred and 
forty families from Norwich into Holland, where the Dutch 
received them hospitably, and gave them house-accommoda- 
tion free, with exemption from taxes for seven years, during 
which they instructed the natives in the woolen manufacture, 
of which they had before been ignorant. But the greater 
number of the nonconformist foreigners emigrated with theii- 
families to IsTorth America, and swelled the numbers of the lit- 
tle colony already formed in Massachusetts Bay, which event- 
ually laid the foundation of the great "New England States. 

respect to the dress of the clergy, and the use of surplices and hoods, copes, 
albs, stoles, and chasubles. Careful attention was paid to ritual, and to the 
attitudes and postures, the crossings and genefluxions, with which it was to 
be accompanied. Candles were introduced on the communion table, which 
was railed in and called the altar, after the manner of Rome ; while the 
communion became a more or less disguised mass. Laud would admit of 
no Low-Churchism or Dissent, against both of which he hurled excommu- 
nications and anathemas. Under his rule, the poor foreign Protestants felt 
themselves like toads under a harrow. When they humbly expostulated 
with him by petition, and prayed for that liberty of worship which they had 
enjoyed in past reigns, he told them that his course was not to be stopped by 
the letters-patent of Edward VI., or by any arguments they might use ; that 
their churches were nests of schism ; that it were better there should be no 
foreigners in England than that they should be permitted to prejudice and 
endanger the Church government of the realm ; and that they must conform 
at theii" peril by the time appointed. While Laud was thus rigid in matters 
of religion, he was equally uncompromising in matters of literature. He 
instituted a strict censorship of the press, and if any book was published 
without his imprimatur, the author and printer were liable to be flogged, 
fined, placed in the pillory, and have their ears cropped. The reprinting of 
old books was also prohibited ; even such works as those of the Protestant 
Bishop Jewell being interdicted. The tendency of all this was obvious. 
Laud was carrying the English Church back to Rome as fast as the nation 
would let him. The Pope offered him a cardinal's hat, and repeated the 
offer, but the time for accepting it never arrived. A few weeks after the 
meeting of the Long Parliament, in 1640, Laud was impeached of high trea- 
son, condemned, and sentenced to death ; and he was beheaded on the 10th 
of January following. The injustice as well as illegality of the sentence is 
now, we believe, generally admitted; but the Long ]?arliament had the up- 
per hand, and the struggle had become one not only for liberty, but for life. 



112 SETTLEMENTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

After tlie lapse of a few years, the reactionary course on 
which Archbishop Laud and Charles I. had entered was sum- 
marily checked, as all readers of history know. The foreign 
refugees were again permitted to worship God according to 
conscience, and the right of free asylum in England was 
again recognized and established. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE EAELY WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 

The chief object which, the foreign Protestants had in \'iew 
in flying for refiige into England was to worship God accord- 
ing to conscience. For that they had sacrificed all — posses- 
sions, home, and country. Accordingly, no sooner did they 
settle in any place than they formed themselves into congre- 
gations for the purpose of worshiping together. While their 
numbers were small, they were content to meet in each oth- 
er's houses, or in workshops or other roomy places ; but, as 
the influx of refugees increased mth the increase of perse- 
cution abroad, and as many pastors of eminence came with 
them, the strangers besought the government to grant them 
conveniences for holding their worship in public. This was 
willingly conceded to them, andi^as early as the reign of Ed- 
ward YL churches were set apart for their use in London, 
Norwich, Southampton, and Canterbury. 

The first Walloon and French churches in London owed 
their origin to the young King Edward VL, and to the pro- 
tection of the Duke of Somerset and Ai'chbishop Cranmer. 
On the 24th of July, 1550, the King issued royal letters pat- 
ent, appoiuting John A' Lasco, a learned Polish gentleman,* 

* In 1544, John A' Lasco gave up the office of provost of the church of 
Gnezne in Posen, of which his uncle was archbishop, to go and found a 
Protestant church at Embden, in East Friesland. An order of Charles V. 
obliged him to leave that town four years later, when he came over to En- 
gland, in the year 1548, and placed himself in communication with Cecil, 
who recommended him to the Duke of Somerset and Archbishop Cranmer! 
During his residence in England, A' Lasco was actively engaged in propa- 
gating the new views. He established the first French printing-house in 
London for the publication of religious books, of which he produced many ; 
and he also published others, written in Erench by Edward VI. himself. 
During the reign of Mary, when Protestantism in all its forms was tempo- 
rarily suppressed, A' Lasco fled for his life, and took refuge in Switzerland, 
where he died. The foreign churches in Austin Friars and Threadneedle 
Street were reopened on the accession of Elizabeth. 

H 



lU WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES. 

superintendent of the refugee Protestant churclies in En- 
gland ; and at the same time he assigned to such of the 
strangers as had settled in London the church in Austin 
Friars called the Temple of Jesus, wherein to hold their as- 
semblies and celebrate their worship according to the cus- 
tom of their country. Of this church Walter Deloen and 
Martin Flanders, Franpois de la Riviere and Richard Fran- 
9ois, were appointed the first ministers ; the two former of 
the Dutch or Flemish part of the congregation, and the two 
latter of the French. The king fiirther constituted the su- 
perintendent and the ministers into a body politic, and placed 
them under the safeguard of the civil and ecclesiastical au- 
thorities of the kingdom. The number of refugees settled 
in London had by this time become so great that one church 
was found insufficient for their accommodation, although the 
Dutch and French met at alternate hours during the day. 
In the course of a few months, therefore, a second place of 
worship was granted for the French-speaking part of the ref- 
ugees; and the church of Sl^ Anthony's Hospital, in Thread- 
needle Street, was set apart for then* use.* 

Walloon and French congregations were also formed at 
Sandwich, Rye, Winchelsea, Southampton, and the other ports 
at which the refugees first landed ; at Yarmouth, where they 
established their fishing-station ; and at Colchester, Stamford, 
Thetford, Glastonbury, and the inland towns, where they car- 
ried on the cloth manufacture. At Sandwich, the old church 
of St. Peter's was set apart for their special use; but, at the 
same time, they were enjoined not to dispute openly concern- 
ing their religion, f At Rye they were allowed the use of 

* Both these churches were suhsequently destroyed by fire. The church 
in Austin Friars was burnt down quite recently, and has since been restored. 
The church in Threadneedle Street was burnt down during the great fire of 
London, and was afterward rebuilt ; but it has since been demolished to 
make way for the approaches to the new Royal Exchange, when it was re- 
moved to the new French church in St.Martin's-le-Grand. 

t This church long continued to flourish. The Rev. Gerard de Gols, rec- 
tor of St. Peter's, and minister of the Dutch congregation in Sandwich be- 
tween 1713 and 1737, was highly esteemed in his day as an author, and so 



THE REFUGEE CONGREGATIONS. 115 

the parish, church during one part of the day, until a special 
place of worship could be provided for their accommodation. 
At Norwich, where the number of the settlers was greater in 
proportion to the population than in most other towns, the 
choir of Friars Preachers Church, on the east side St. An- 
drew's Hall, was assigned for the use of the Dutch, and the 
Bishop's Chapel, afterward the church of St. Mary's Tomh- 
land, was appropriated for the use of the French and Wal- 
loons. 

Two of the most ancient and interesting of the churches 
founded by the refugees are those of Southampton and Can- 
terbury, both of which survive to this day. Southampton 
was resorted to at an early period by the fugitives firom the 
persecutions in Flanders and France. Many came from the 
Channel Islands, where they had first fled for refuge, on ac- 
count of the proximity of these places to the French coast. 
This appears from the register of the church, a document of 
great interest, preserved among the records of the Register 
Gei^eral at Somerset House.* Like the two foreign Protest- 
ant churches in London already named, that at Southampton 
was established in the reign of Edward VL,f when an old 
chapel in Winkle Street, near the harbor, called Domus Dei, 
or " God's House," forming part of an ancient hospital found- 
ed by two merchants in the reign of Henry HI., was set apart 
for the accommodation of the refugees. The hospital and 
chapel had originally been dedicated to St. Julian, the patron 
of travelers, and was probably used m ancient times by pil- 

much respected by his feUow-townsmen that he was one of the persons se- 
lected by the corporation to support the canopies at the coronation of George 
II. and Queen Caroline. 

* See Appendix, Registers of French Protestant ChtLrches in England. 

t The original grant of the chapel for the use of the Protestant refugees 
is usually attributed to Elizabeth, who merely confirmed the grant made by 
Edward VI. Mr. Bum (^Eist. of Foreign Protestant Refugees, p. 80) quotes a 
petition addressed by the settlers to the mayor and aldermen of Southampton 
in Queen Elizabeth's time (Brit, Mus. Vesp., E. ix.), asking "to have a church 
assigned to them, and to have sacraments and sermons as used in the time 
of Edward VI- " They at the same time asked permission to use their vaii- 
ous crafts in the town, and "to employ their own countrymen and maidens 
in their trades." 



116 WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES, 

grims passing through Southampton to and from the adjoin- 
ing monastic establishments of ISTetley and Beaulieu, and the' 
famous shrines of Winchester, Wells, and Salisbury. 

There are no records of this early French church beyond 
what can be gathered from their register,* which, however, 
is remai-kably complete and well preserved, and presents 
many points of curious interest. The first entries are dated 
1567, when the register began to be kept; and they are con- 
tinued, with occasional mtermissions, down to the year lYQl 
From the first list of communicants given, it appears that 
their number in 1567 was fifty-eight, of whom eight were dis- 
tinguished as " Anglois." The callings of the members were 
various, medical men being comparatively numerous ; while 
others are described as weavers, bakers, cutlers, and brewers. 
The places from which the refugees had come are also given, 
those most frequently occurring being Valenciennes, Lisle, 
Dieppe, Gernese (Guernsey), and Jerse. It further appears 
from the entries that satisfactory evidence was, required of 
the character and religious standing of the new refugees w)io 
from time to time arrived from abroad, before they were ad- 
mitted: to the privileges of membership; the words "avec 
attestation," " temoinage par ecrit," or simply " temoinage," 
being attached to a large number of names. Many of the 
fugitives, before they succeeded in making their escape, ap- 
pear to have been forced to attend mass ; and their first care 
on landing seems to have been to seek out the nearest pas- 
tor, confess their sins, and take the sacrament according to 
the rites of their church. On the 3d of July, 1574 (more than 
a year after the massacre of St. Bartholomew), occurs this en- 
try : " Tiebaut de Befroi, his wife, his son, and his daughter, 
after having made their public acknowledgment of having 
been at the mass, were all received to the sacrament." 

One of the most interesting portions of the register is the 
record of fasts and thanksgivings held at God's House, in the 

* Register of the Church of St. Julian, or God's House, of Southampton. 
Archives of Registrar Gene.ral at Somerset House. See Appendix. 



TEE FASTS AT'' GOD'S HOUSE." 117 

course of whicli we see the poor refugees anxiously watching 
the course of events abroad, deploring the mcreasing feroci- 
ty of the persecutors, praying God to bridle the strong, and 
wicked men who sought to destroy His Church, and to give 
the help of His outstretched arm to its true followers and de- 
fenders. The first of such fasts (jeiisnes) relates to the per- 
secutions in the JS^etherlands by the Duke of Alva, and runs 
as follows:* "The year 1568, the thii-d day of September, 
was celebrated a public fast ; the . occasion was that Mon- 
seignor the Prince of Orange had descended from Germany 
into the Low Countries to try with God's help to deliver the 
poor churches there from affliction ; and now to beseech the 
Lord most fervently for the deliverance of His people, this 
fast was celebrated." 

Another fast was held in 1570, on the occasion of the 
defeat of the Prince of Conde at the battle of Jamac, when 
the little church at Southampton again beseeched help for 
their brethren against the calamities which threatened to 
overwhelm them. Two years later, on the 25th of Septem- 
ber, 1572, we find them again entreating help for the Prince 
of Orange, who had entered the Low Countries from Genna- 
ny with a new army, to deliver the poor churches there from 
the hands of the Duke of Alva, " that cruel tyrant ; and also, 
principally, for that the churches of France have suffered a 
marvelous and extremely horrible calamity — a horrible mas- 
sacre having been perpetrated at Paris on the 24th day of 
August last, in which a great number of nobles and of the 
faithful were killed in one night, about twelve or thirteen 
thousand ; preaching forbidden throughout the kingdom, and 
all the property of the faithful given up to pillage through- 
out the kingdom. Now, for the consolation of them and of 
the Low Countries, and to pray the Lord for their deliver- 
ance, was celebrated this solemn fast."f 

Other fasts were held, to pray God to maintain her majes- 
ty the queen in good friendship and accord with the Prince 

* For the words in the original, see Appendix. f Id. ibid. 



118 WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES. 

of Orange,* to uphold the Protestant churches in France, to 
stay the ravages of the plague, to comfort and succor the 
poor people of Antwerp) driven out of that city on its de- 
struction by the Spaniards,! and to help and strengthen the 
churches of the refuge established in England. Several of 
these fasts were appointed to be held by the conference (col- 
loque) of the churches, the meetings of which were held an- 
nually in London, Canterbury, Norwich, Southampton, and 
other places, so that at the same time the same fast was be- 
ing held in all the foreign churches throughout the kingdom. 

In one case the shock of an earthquake is recorded. The 
entry runs as follows: "The 28th of April, 1580, a fast was 
celebrated to pray God to preserve us against his anger, 
since on the sixth of this month we have been appalled by a 
great trembling of the earth, which has not only been felt 
throughout all this kingdom, but also ia Picardy and the Low 
Countries of Flanders ; as well as to preserve us against war 
and plague, and to protect the poor churches of Flanders and 
France against the assaults of their enemies, who have joined 
their forces to the great army of Spain for the purpose of 
worldng their destruction." Another fast commemorates the 
appearance of a comet, which was first seen on the 8th of Oc- 
tober, and contiQued in sight until the 12th of December, in 
the year 1581. 

A subsequent entry relates to the defeat of the great Span- 
ish Armada. On this occasion the little church united in a 
public thanksgiving. The record is as follows: "The 29th 
of iTovember, 1588, thanlis were publicly rendered to God for 
the wonderful dispersion of the Spanish fleet, which had de- 
scended upon the coast of England with the object of con- 
quering the kingdom and bringing it under the tyranny of 
the Pope," And on the 5th of December following, another 
public fast was held for the purpose of praying the Lord that 
he would be pleased to grant to the churches of France and 
of Flanders a like happy deliverance as had been vouchsafed 

* Fast, 29th August, 1576. f Fast, 22d November, 1576. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 119 

to England. A "blessing was also sought upon the English 
navy, which had put to flight the Armada of Spain. 

Other fasts and thanksgivings relate to the progress of the 
arms of Henry of ISTavarre, and his subsequent ascent of the 
French throne, when the right of the French Protestants to 
hherty of worship became legally recognized.* In the midst 
of these events Queen Elizabeth visited Southampton with 
her court, on which occasion the refugees sought to obtain 
access to her majesty, to thank her for the favor and protec- 
tion they had enjoyed at her hands. They were unable to 
obtain an interview with the queen until she had set out on 
her way homeward, when a deputation of the refugees waited 
for her outside the town and craved a brief interview. This 
she graciously accorded, when their spokesman thanked her 
for the tranquillity and rest which they had enjoyed during 
the twenty-four years that they had hved in the town, to 
which the queen replied very kindly, giving praise to God 
who had given her the opportunity and the power of wel- 
coming and encouraging the poor foreigners.f 

A considerable proportion of the fasts relate to the plague, 
which was a frequent and unwelcome visitor — on one occa- 
sion sweeping away almost the entire settlement. In 1583 
the communicants were reduced to a very small number, but 
those who remained met daily at " God's House" to pray for 
the abatement of the pestilence. It retui-ned again in 1604, 
and again swept away a large proportion of the congrega- 
tion, which had considerably increased in the interval. One 
hundred and sixty-one persons are set down as having died 
of plague in that year, the number of deaths amounting to 
four and five a day. The greater part of the inhabitants of 
Southampton abandoned their dwellings, and the clergy seem 

* On the 7th of September, 1589, the French Protestant refugees in Lon- 
don sent an address to Henry IV., on his accession to the French throne, 
exhorting him to continue steadfast in his support of the Church, showing 
that the poor French emigrants had neither forgotten their native country, 
nor the cause of their coming hither. — State Paper Office ; Foreign Corre- 
spondence — France. 

t Entry in Register of God's House, Southampton. See Appendix. 



120 WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES. 

to have accompanied them; for on the 23d of July, 1665, an 
English child was brought to the French church to be bap- 
tized, by authority of the mayor, and the ceremony was per- 
formed by M. Courand, the pastor. Shortly after, Courand 
died at his post, after registering with his own hand the 
deaths of the greater part of his flock. On the 21st of Sep- 
tember, 1665, the familiar handwriting of the pastor ceases, 
and the entry is made by another hand : " Monsieur Courand, 
notre pasteur — peste." While death was thus busy, marry- 
ing and giving in marriage nevertheless went on. Some 
cou]3les were so impatient to be united that they could not 
wait for the return of the English clergy, who had all left 
the town, but proceeded to be married at " God's House," as 
we find by the register. 

Another highly-interesting memorial of the asylum given 
to the persecuted Protestants of Flanders and France so 
many centuries ago, is presented by the Walloon or French 
church which exists to this day in Canterbury Cathedral. It 
was formed at a very early period, some suppose as early as 
the reign ofEdward VL,like those of London and Southamp- 
ton ; but the first record preserved of its existence is early in 
the reign of Elizabeth. Shortly after the landings of the for- 
eign Protestants at Sandwich and Rye, a body of them pro- 
ceeded to Canterbury, and sought permission of the mayor 
and aldermen to settle in the place. They came principally 
from Lisle, Nuelle, Turcoing, Waterloo, Darmentieres, and 
other places situated along the present French frontier. 

The first arrivals of the fugitives consisted of eisrhteen 
families, led by their pastor, Hector Hamon, " minister verbi 
Dei." They are described as having landed at Rye, and tem- 
porarily settled at Winchelsea, from which place they came 
across the country to Canterbury. Persecution had made 
these poor exiles very humble. All that they sought was 
freedom to worship and to labor. They had no thought but 
to pursue their several callings in peace and quiet — to bring 
up their children vii'tuously — and to lead a diligent, sober, 



CANTERBURY WALLOON CHURCH. 121 

and religious life, according to the dictates of conscience. 
Men such as these are the salt of the earth in all times ; yet 
they had been forced by a ruthless persecution from theii- 
homes, and driven forth as wanderers on the face of the earth. 
In their memorial to the mayor and aldermen in 1564, they 
set forth that they had, for the love of religion (which they 
earnestly desired to hold fast with a free conscience), relin- 
quished their country and their worldly goods; and they 
humbly prayed that they might be permitted the free exer- 
cise of their religion within the city, and allowed the privi- 
lege of a temple to hold their worship in, together with a 
place of sepulture for theii' dead. They farther requested 
that lest, under the guise of religion, profane and evil-minded 
men should seek to share in the privileges which they sought 
to obtain, none should be permitted to join them without 
giving satisfactory evidences of theii* probity of character. 
And, in order that the young persons belonging to their body 
might not remain untaught, they also asked permission to 
maintain a teacher for the purpose of instructing them in the 
French tongue. Finally, they declared theii* intention of 
being industrious citizens, and proceeding, under the favor 
and protection of the magistrates, to make Florence, serges, 
bombazine, Orleans, silk, bayes, mouquade, and other stuffs.* 

* The followinpr is the memorial, as given in the appendix to Somner's 
Antiquities of Cantei-hury, and which he entitles "The articles granted to the 
French strangers by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City :" 
Dignissimis Dominis Domino Maiori et Fratribns Consiliariis Urbis Cantua- 

riensis Salntera. 

Supplicant hnmilim^ extranei vestra libertate adm si in ista urbe Cantua- 
riensi quat' velitis seqnentes articulos illis concedere. 
Prior Articulus. 

1. Quia religionis amore (qnam libera conscientia tenere percupiant) pa- 
triam et propria bona reliquerunt, orant sibi liberum exercitium suffi relig- 
ionis permitti in hac urbe, quod ut fiat commodius sibi assignari templum et 
locum in quo poterint sepeHre mortuos suos. 

Secundus Articulus. 

2. Et ne sub eomm umbra et titulo religionis profani et male morati ho- 
mines sese in banc urbem intromittant per quos tota societas male audiret 
apud cives vestros ; supplicant nemini liberam mansionem in hac urbe per- 
mitti, nisi prius suae probitatis sufficiens testimonium vobis dederit. 



122 WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES. 

Canterbury was fortunate in being appealed to by tbe fu- 
gitives for an asylum, bringing with them, as they did, skill, 
industry, and character; and the authorities at once cheer- 
ftilly granted them all that they asked, in the terms of their 
own memorial. The mayor and aldermen gave them permis- 
sion to carry on their trades within the precincts of the city. 
At the same time, the liberal-minded Matthew Parker, then 
Ai-chbishop of Canterbury, with the sanction of the queen, 
granted to the exiles the free use of the Under Croft of the 
cathedral, where " the gentle and profitable strangers," as 
the archbishop styled them, not only celebrated then- worship 
and taught their children, but set up their looms and carried 
on theii- several trades. 

The Under Croffc, or Crypt, extends under the choir and 
high altar of Canterbury Cathedral, and is of considerable 
extent. The body of Thomas a Becket was buried first in 
the Under Croft, and lay there for fifty years, until it was 
translated with great ceremony to the sumptuous shrine pre- 
pared by Stephen Langton, his successor, at the east end of 
the cathedral. Part of the Under Croft, immediately under 
the cross aisle of the choir, was dedicated and endowed as a 

Tertius Articulus. 

3. Et ne inventus inculta maneat, requirunt permissionem dari prajceptori 
quern secum adduxerunt instruendi juvenes, turn eos quos secum addnxe- 
runt, turn eos qui volunt linguam Gallicum discere. 

Quartits Ariiculus. 

4. Artes ad quas exercendas sunt vocari, et in quibus laborare cupit tota 
societas sub vestro favore et protectione sunt Florenci, Serges, Bombasin, D. 
of Ascot Serges, etc., of Orleance, Frotz, Silkwever, Mouquade, Mauntes, 
Bazes, &c, Stofe Mouquades. 

Nomina supplicantium sunt. 
Hector Hamon, Minister verbi Dei. 
ViNCENTiTJS Primont, lustitutor Juventutis. 
Egidius Cousm, Magister operum, et conductor totius congre- 
gationis in opere. 

Michael Cousin. Johannes le Pelu. 

Jacobus Querin. Johannes de la Forterte. 

Petrus du Bose. Noel Lestene. 

Antonius du Verdiee. Nicholaus Dubuisson. 
Philippus de Neuz. Petrus Desportes. 
EoBERTUS Jovelin. Jacobus Boudet. 

Tres Vidu^. 



THE CHAPEL OF TRE UNDER CROFT. 123 

chapel by Edward the Black Prince ; and another part of the 
area was inclosed by rich Gothic stone-work, and dedicated 
to the Virgin.* 

The Lady Undercroft Chapel was one of the most gor- 
geous shi-ines of its time. It was so rich and of such high 
esteem, that Somner says " the sight of it was debarred to 
the vulgar, and reserved only for persons of great quality." 
Erasmus, who by especial favor (Archbishop Warham recom- 
mending him) was brought to the sight of it, describes it 
thus : " There," said he, " the Virgin-mother hath a habita- 
tion, but somewhat dark, inclosed with a double Sept or Kail 
of Iron for fear of Thieves. For indeed I never saw a thing 
more laden with Riches. Lights being brought, we saw a 
more than Royal Spectacle. In beauty it far surpasseth that 
of Walsingham. This Chapel is not showed but to Noble- 
men and especial Friends, "f Over the statue of the Vii-gin, 
which was in pure gold, there was a royal purple canopy, 
starred with jewels and precious stones ; and a row of silver 
lamps was suspended from the roof in front of the shrme. 

All these decorations were, however, removed by Henry 
VUUL, who took possession of the greater part of the gold, 
and silver, and jewels of the cathedral, and had them cou- 

* Canterbury Cathedral contains an interesting Huguenot memorial of 
about the same date as the settlement of the Walloons in the Under Croft. 
The visitor, to the cathedral observes behind the high altar, near the tomb 
of the Black Prince, a coffin of brick plastered over in the form of a sai- 
cophagus. It contains the ashes of Cardinal Odo Coligny, brother of the 
celebrated Admiral Coligny, one of the first victims of the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew. In 1568 the cardinal visited Queen Elizabeth, who received 
him with marked respect, and lodged him sumptuously at Sheen. Three 
years later he died at Canterbuiy after a brief illness. Strype, and nearly 
all subsequent writers, allege that he died of poison, administered by one of 
his attendants because of his supposed conversion to Protestantism. From a 
full report of his death made to Burghley and Leicester, preserved in the 
State Paper Office, there does not, however, appear sufficient ground for the 
popular belief. His body was not interred, but was placed in the brick cof- 
fin behind the high altar, in order that it might be the more readily removed 
for interment in the family vault in France when the religious troubles 
which then prevailed had come to an end. But the massacre of St. Barthol- 
omew shortly followed ; the Coligny family were thereby almost destroyed ; 
and hence the body of Odo Coligny has not been buried to this day. 

t SoMNEK — Antiquities of Canterbury, 1703, p. 97. 



124 WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES. 

verted into money.* The Under Croft became deserted ; the 
chapels it contained were disused ; and it remaiaed merely a 
large,- vaulted, ill-lighted area, untU permission was granted 
to the Walloons to use it by turns as a weaving-shed, a 
school, and a church. Over the capitals of the columns on 
the north side of the crypt are several texts of Scripture still 
to be seen in old French, written up for the benefit of the 
scholars, and doubtless taught them by heart. The texts 
are from the Psalms, the Proverbs, and the New Testament. 

Desolate, gloomy, and sepulchral though the place was — 
with the ashes of former archbishops and dignitaries of the 
oathedral mouldering under their feet — the exiles were 
thankful for the refuge it afforded them in their time of 
need, and they daily made the vaults resound with their 
prayer and praise. Morning and night they " sang the 
Lord's song in a strange land, and wept when they remember- 
ed Zion." During the daytime the place was busy with the 
sound of labor ; the floor was covered with looms, through 
which the shuttles went flashing ; and the exiles were cheer- 
ed at the thought of being able thus honestly to earn their 
living, though among foreigners. 

The refugees worked, worshiped, and prospered. They 
succeeded in maintaining themselves ; they supported their 
own poor ; and they were able, out of their small means, to 
entend a helping hand to the numerous fugitives who con- 
tinued to arrive in England, fleeing from the persecutions in 
Flanders and France, Their numbers so increased, that in 
the course of a few years the French congregation consisted 
of several hundred persons. Every comer of the Under 
Croft was occupied, and, as more immigrants continued to 

* One of the richest parts of the treasure taken from the Cathedral was the 
shrine of Thomas "k Becket, thus described by Stow in his Annals (in Henry 
VIII.) : "The timber-work of this Shrine on the outside was covered with 
plates of Gold, damasked and embossed with Wires of Gold, garnished with 
Brooches, Images, Angels, Chains, Precious Stones, and great Orient Pearls, 
the Spoil of which Shrine (in Gold and Jewels of an inestimable value) filled 
two great Chests, one of which six or eight strong men could do no more 
than convey out of the Church — all which was taken to the King's use." 



THE EXILES IN TKE UNDER CROFT. 125 

arrive, the place became too small to accommodate them. 
Somner, writing in 1639, thus refers to the exiles : 

"Let me now lead you to the Under Croft — a place fit, and haply (as one 
cause) fitted to keep in memory the subterraneous Temples of the Primitives 
in the times of Persecution. The West part whereof, being spacious and 
lightsome, for many years hath been the strangers' church : A congregation 
for the most part of distressed Exiles, grown so great, and yet daily multiply- 
ing, that the place in short time is likely to prove a Hive too little to contain 
such a Swarm. So great an alteration is there since the time the first of 
the Tribe came hither, the number of them then consisting of but eighteen 
families, or thereabouts."* 

The exiles remained unmolested in the exercise of their 
worship until the period when Laud became archbishop, 
when the attempt was made to compel them to conform to 
the English ritual, and they began to fear lest they should 
again have to fly and seek refuge elsewhere. But the at- 
tention of the archbishop was shortly diverted from them by 
the outbreak of the Scottish war ; and although there were 
riots and disturbances in the cathedralf — -the popular indig- 
nation being greatly excited by the retrograde movement 
then on foot in religious and political affairs — it does not ap- 
pear that the foreigners were farther molested. They were 
protected throughout the period of tlie Commonwealth and 
the Protectorate, and afterward by Charles IL Then* num- 

* SoMNER — Antiquities of Canterbury, Part i., 97. 

t In the preface to the new edition of Soraner's Antiquities of Canterhury, 
the editor, Nicolas Battely, M.A., thus refers to these riots : *' Mr. William 
Somner collected the Antiquities of Canterbury in a time of Peace, while 
(as yet) the Church flourished under the Government of King Charles I., 
and under the conduct of Archbishop Laud, to whose Pati-onage he dedi- 
cated this Work, which he published Anno 164:0. But before this Year was 
ended a dismal Stonn did arise, which did shake and threaten with a final 
overthrow the very Foundations of this Church : Por upon the Feast of the 
Epiphany, and the Sunday following, there was a riotous disturbance raised 
by some disorderly People, in the time of Divine Service, in the Quire of 
this Church : And altho' by the care of the Prebendaries a stop was put to 
these Disorders for a time, yet afterwards the Madness of the People did 
rage, and prevail beyond resistance. The venerable Dean and Canons were 
turned out of their Stalls, the beautiful and new-erected Font was pulled 
down, the Inscriptions, Figures, and Coats of Arms, engraven upon Brass, 
were torn oif from the ancient Monuments ; and whatsoever there was of 
beauty or decency in the Holy Place was despoiled by the outrages of Sac- 
rilege and Profaneness." 



126 WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES. 

bers were greatly increased by the arrival of a body of silk 
and stuff weavers from Tours, until, in 1665, they numbered 
126 master-weavers and above 1300 workpeople, who carried 
on the trades of silk and stuff weaving, dyeing, loom and 
wheel making, and various other branches of skilled indus- 
try. At the same time, they gave employment to a large 
number of the townspeople, who gradually learned the vari- 
ous branches of trade pursued by the foreigners. In 1676 the 
king granted the weavers a charter, under which they formed 
themselves into a company, entitled " The Masters, Wardens, 
Assistants, and Fellowship of Weavers ;" and in the course 
of a few more years they had a thousand looms at work. 

The exiles continued to prosper and the trade of Can- 
terbury to thrive until after the revocation of the Edict, of 
Nantes, which was followed by another immense influx of 
refugee Protestants from France into various parts of En- 
gland. A large number of them settled in Spitalfields, >nd 
there established various branches of the silk manufacture ; 
and the advantages of concentrating the ti-ade shortly after 
induced the greater part of the Canterbury settlers to re- 
move to London. The consequence was, that the French 
church at Canterbury gradually declined ; and though many 
of the French exiles and theii- descendants remained in the 
city, and are traceable to this day, they have long ceased to 
form a distinctive part of the population. 

But it is a remarkable circumstance that the original 
French Calvuaist church still continues to exist in Canter- 
bury Cathedral. Three hundred years have passed since the 
first body of exiled Walloons met to worship there — three 
hundred years, during which generations have come and 
gone, and revolutions have swept over Europe ; and still 
that eloquent memorial of the religious history of the Mid- 
dle Ages survives, bearing testimony alike to the rancor of 
the persecutions abroad, the heroic steadfastness of the for- 
eign Protestants, the large and liberal spirit of the English 
Church, and the glorious asylum which England has in all 



FRENCH CHURCH, CANTERBURY. 127 

times given to foreigners flying for refuge against oppression 
and tyranny. 

The visitor to tlie cathedral, in passing through the Under 
Croft, has usually pointed out to him the apartment still 
used as " the French church." It is walled off from the 
crypt in the south side -aisle; and through the windows 
which overlook the interior the arrangements of the place 
can easily be observed. It is plainly fitted up with pews, a 
pulpit, and precentor's desk, hke a dissenting place of wor- 
ship ; and, indeed, it is a dissenting place of worship, though 
forming part of the High Cathedral of Canterbury. The 
place also contains a long table, at which the communicants 
sit when receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, after 
the manner of the Geneva brethren. 

Aad here the worship still continues to be conducted in 
French, and the psalms are sung to the old Huguenot tunes, 
almost within sound of the high choral service of the Estab- 
lished Church of England overhead. " Here," says the Ger- 
man Dr. Pauli, " the early refugees celebrated the services of 
their church ; and here their descendants, who are now re- 
duced to a very small number, still carry on their Presby- 
terian mode of worship in then* own tongue, immediately be- 
low the south aisle of the high choir, where the Anglican rit- 
ual is observed in aU its prescribed form — a noble and touch- 
ing concurrence, the parallel to which can not be met with 
in any other cathedral church in England."* 

The French church at Canterbury would doubtless long 
since have become altogether extinct, like the other churches 
of the refugees, but for an endowment of about £200 a year, 
which has served to keep.it alive. The members do not now 
amount to more than twenty, of whom two are elders and 
four deacons. But, though the church has become reduced 
to a mere vestige and remnant of what it was, it never- 
theless serves to mark an epoch of memorable importance 
to England. 

* '^A.-uii— Pictures of Old England, 29. 



CHAPTER Vn. 

RENEWAL OP THE PEESECUTIONS IN PEANCE. REVOCATION 

OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 

The Huguenots did not long enjoy the privileges conceded 
to them by the Edict of Nantes. Twelve years after its pro- 
mulgation by Henry lY., that monarch was assassinated by 
RavaillaCjOn which the elements of discord again broke loose. 
Although the edicts of toleration were formally proclaimed 
by his successor, they were practically disregarded and vio- 
lated. Marie de Medicis, the queen regent, was, like all her 
race, the bitter enemy of Protestantism. She was governed 
by Italian favorites, who inspired her policy. They distrib- 
uted among themsSlves the public treasure with so lavish a 
hand that the Parisians rose in insurrection against them, 
murdered Concini, whom the queen had created Marshal 
d'Ancre, and afterward burned his wife as a sorceress ; the 
young king, Louis XHI., then only about sixteen years old, 
joining in the atrocities. 

Civil war shortly broke out between the court and the 
country factions, which soon became embittered by the old 
religious animosities. There was a great massacre of the 
Huguenots in Beam, where their worship was suppressed, 
and the Roman Catholic priests were installed in their places. 
Other massacres followed, and occasioned general alarm 
among the Protestants. In those towns where they were the 
strongest they shut their gates against the kuig's forces, and 
determined to resist force by force. In 1621, the young king 
set out with his army to reduce the revolted towns, and first 
attacked St. Jean d'Angely, which he captured after a siege 
of twenty-six days. He next assailed Montauban, but, after 



SIEGE OF ROCEELLE. 129 

a siege of two months, he was compelled to retire from the 
place defeated, with tears in his eyes, 

In 1622, the king called to his councils Armand Duplessis 
de Kichelieu, the queen's favorite adviser, whom the Pope had 
recently presented with a cardinal's hat. His force of char- 
acter was soon felt, and in all affairs of government the influ- 
ence of Richelieu hecame supreme. One of the first objects 
to which he applied himself was the suppression of the an- 
archy which prevailed throughout France, occasioned in a 
great measure by the abuse of the feudal powers still exer- 
cised by the ancient noblesse. Another object which he con- 
sidered essential to the unity and power of France was the 
annihilation of the Protestants as a political party. Accord- 
ingly, shortly after his accession to office, he advised the at- 
tack of Rochelle, the head-quarters of the Huguenots, and re- 
garded as the citadel of Protestantism in France. His advice 
was followed, and a powerful army was assembled and 
marched on the doomed place, Richelieu combining in him- 
self the functions of bishop, prime minister, and commander- 
in-chief. The Huguenots of Rochelle defended themselves 
with great bravery for more than a year, during which they 
endured the greatest privations. But their resistance was in 
vain; for on the 28th of October, 1628, Richelieu rode into 
Rochelle by the king's side, in velvet and cuirass, at the head 
of the royal army ; after which he proceeded to perform high 
mass in. the great church of St. Margaret, in celebration of his 
victory. 

The siege of Rochelle, while in progress, excited much in- 
terest among the Protestants throughout England, and anx- 
ious appeals were made to Charles L to send help to the be- 
sieged- This he faithfully promised to do ; and he dispatched 
. a fleet and army to their assistance, commanded by his favor- 
ite, the Duke of Buckingham. The fleet duly arrived off Ro- 
chelle, and the army landed on the Isle of Rhe, but were driv- 
en back to their ships with great slaughter. Buckingham 
attempted nothing farther on behalf of the Rochellese. He 

I 



130 RENEWJED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

returned to England with a disgraced flag and a murmuring 
fleet, amid the general discontent of the people. A second 
expedition sailed for the relief of the place, under the com- 
mand of the Earl of Lindsay ; but, though the fleet arrived in 
sight of Rochelle, it sailed back to England without even 
making an attempt on its behalf The popular indignation 
rose to a still greater height than before. It was bruited 
abroad, and generally believed, that both expeditions had 
been a mere blind on the part of Charles I, and that, acting 
under the influence of his queen, Henrietta Maria, sister of the 
French king, he had never really intended that Rochelle 
should be relieved. However this might be, the failure was 
disgraceful; and when, in later years, the unfortunate Charles 
was brought to trial by his subjects, the abortive R-ochelle 
expeditions were bitterly remembered against him. 

Meanwhile Cardinal Richelieu vigorously prosecuted the 
war against the Huguenots wherever they stood in arms 
against the king. His operations were uniformly successful. 
The Huguenots were every where overthrown, and in the 
course of a few years they had ceased to exist as an armed 
power in France. Acting in a wise and tolerant spirit, Rich- 
elieu refrained from pushmg his advantage to an extremity ; 
and when all resistance was over, he advised the king to is- 
sue an edict granting freedom of worship and other privi- 
leges. The astute statesman was doubtless induced to adopt 
this course by considerations of state policy, for he had by 
this time entered into a league with the Swedish and German 
Protestant powers for the humiliation of the house of Austria, 
and with that object he sought to enlist the co-operation of 
the king's Protestant as well as Roman Catholic subjects. 
The result was, that, in 1629, "the Edict of Pardon" was is- 
sued by Louis XHI., granting to the Protestants various 
rights and privileges, together with liberty of worship and 
equality before the law. 

From this time forward the Huguenots ceased to exist as 
a political party, and were distinguished from the rest of the 



LOYALTY OF THE HUGUENOTS. 131 

people by their religion only. Being no longer available for 
purposes of faction, many of the nobles, who had been their 
leaders, fell away from them and rejoined the old Church, 
though a large number of the smaller gentry, the merchants, 
manufacturers, and skilled workmen continued Protestants 
as before. Then- loyal conduct fully justified the mdulgences 
which were granted to them by Richelieu, and confirmed by 
his successor Mazarin. Repeated attempts were made to in- 
volve them in the civil broils of the time, but they sternly 
kept aloof, and, if they took up arms, it was on the side of the 
government. When, in 1632, the Duke of Montmorency 
sought, for factious purposes, to reawaken the religious pas- 
sions in Languedoc, of which he was governor, the Huguenots 
refiised to join him. The Protestant inhabitants of Montau- 
ban even offered to march against him. During the wars of 
the Fronde, they sided with the king against the factions. 
Even the inhabitants of Rochelle supported the regent against 
their own governor. Cardinal Mazarin, then prime minister, 
frankly acknowledged the loyalty of the Huguenots. " I have 
no cause," he said, " to complain of the little flock ; if they 
browse on bad herbage, at least they do not stray away." 
Louis XlV. himself, at the commencement of his reign, form- 
ally thanked them for the consistent manner in which they 
had withstood the invitations of powerful chiefs to resist the 
royal authority, while, at the same time, he professed to con- 
firm them in the enjoyment of their rights and privileges. 

The Protestants, however, continued to labor under many 
disabilities. They were in a great measure excluded from 
civil office and from pohtical employment. They accordingly 
devoted themselves for the most part to industrial pursuits. 
They were acknowledged to be the best agriculturists, wine- 
growers, merchants, and manufacturers in France. " At all 
events," said Ambrose Pare, one of the most industrious men 
of his time, " posterity will not be able to charge us with 
idleness." No heavier crops were grown in France than on 
the Huguenot farms in Beam and the southwestern prov- 



132 RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

inces. In Languedoc, the cantons inhabited by the Protest- 
ants were the best cultivated' and most productive. The 
slopes of the Aigoul and the Eperon were covered with their 
flocks and herds. The valley of Vaunage, in the diocese of 
Nismes, where they had more than sixty temples, was cele- 
brated for the richness of its vegetation, and was called by 
its inhabitants "the Little Canaan." The vine-dressers of 
Berri and the Pays Messin, on the Moselle, restored those 
districts to more than their former prosperity ; and the dili- 
gence, skill, and labor with which they subdued the stubborn 
soil and made it yield its increase of flowers and fruits, and 
corn and wine, bore witness in all quarters to the toil and 
energy of the men of The Religion. 

The Huguenots of the towns were similarly industrious 
and enterprising. At Tours and Lyons they prosecuted the 
silk manufacture with great success, making taffetas, velvets, 
brocades, ribbons, and cloth of gold and silver, of finer quali- 
ties than were then produced in any other country in Eu- 
rope. They also carried on the manufacture of fine cloth in 
various parts of France, and exported the article in large 
quantities to Germany, Spain, and England.* They estab- 



* The wool used in the manufacture of the French cloth was, for the most 
part, brought from England, notwithstanding the heavy duties then levied on 
its export. When, prices became excessive, the export was wholly prohibit- 
ed. But this did not prevent the smuggling of wool outward on a large 
scale. It was canned on all round the coast, but principally by the owlers 
(as the smugglers of wool were called) of Romney Marsh. Men were al- 
ways to be found ready to risk their necks for a shilling a day. The writer 
of a pamphlet published in 1671, entitled England's Interest by Trade Assert- 
ed, showing the Necessity and Excellency thereof , says: '*The methods or ways 
of these evils are, first, in Rumny-Marsh in Kent, where the greatest part of 
rough wool is exported from England, put aboard French shallops by night, 
ten or twenty men, well armed, to guard it ; some other .parts there are, as 
in Sussex, Hampshire, and Essex, where the same methods may be used, 
but not so conveniently. The same for combed wool from Canterbury ; they 
will carry it ten or fifteen miles at night towards the sea, with the like guard 
as before" (p. 16). In two years forty thousand packs were sent to Calais 
alone. The Romney Marsh men not only shipped their own wool, but large 
quantities brought from the inland counties. In 1677, Andrew Marvel de- 
scribed the wool-men as a militia that, in defiance of authority, conveyed 
their wool to the shallops in such strength that the officers of the crovm 
dared not oflfend them. The coast-men, at shearing-time, openly carried 



THE HUGUENOT INDUSTRIES. . 133 

lislied magnificent linen manufactories at Yire, Falaise, and 
Argentine, in Normandy ; manufactories of Heached clotli 
at MorlaiXj Landerman, and Brest ; and manufactories of 
sail-clotli at Rennes, Nantes, and Titre, in Brittany, great 
part of whose produce was exported to Holland and En- 
gland.* 

The Huguenots also carried on large manufactories of pa- 
per in Auvergne and the Angoumois. In the latter province 
they had no fewer than six hundred paper-mills, and the arti- 
cle they produced was the best of its kind in Europe. The 
mills at Amhert supplied the paper on which the choicest 
books which emanated from the presses of Paris, as well as 
Amsterdam and London, were then printed. The celebrated 
leather of Touraine, and the fine hats of Caudebec, were al- 
most exclusively produced by thejf^rotestant manufacturers, 
who also successfully carried on, at Sedan, the fabrication of 
articles of iron and steel, which were exported abroad in 
large quantities. 

Perhaps one reason why the Huguenots wer^ so successful 

in conducting these great branches of industry consisted in 

the fact that their time was much less broken in upon by 

saints' days and festival days, and that their labor was thus 

much more continuous, and consequently more effective, than 

in the case of the Roman Catholic portion of the population.! 

their wool on horses' backs to the sea-shore, where French vessels were ready 
to receive it, attacking fiercely any one who ventured to interfere. 

* "Such was the extent of this manufacture," says Weiss (History of the 
French Protestant Refugees'), " that the English every year bought at Morlaix 
4,500,000 livres' worth of these cloths — a fact verified by the register of the 
duties they paid for the stamp on their exit from the kingdom." Indeed, 
the English were at that time among the largest purchasers of French man- 
ufactures of all kinds. The writer of a pamphlet, entitled An Inquiry into 
the Revenue, Credit, and Commerce of France, in a Letter to a Member of Par- 
liament (London, 1742), says : " We formerly took from France to the value 
of £600,000 per annum in silks, velvets, and satins; £700,000 in linen, can- 
vas, and sail-cloth; £220,000 in beaver, demicastor, and felt hats; and 
400,000 reams of paper; besides numerous other articles." 

t "The working year of the Protestants consisted of 310 days, because 
they dedicated to repose only the fifty-two Sundays and a few solemn festi- 
vals, which gave to their industry the superiority of one sixth over that of the 
Catholics, whose working year was 260 days, because they devoted more 
than 105 to repose." — ^Weiss, History of the French Protestant Refugees, 27. 



134 RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

Besides this, however, the Protestants were almost of neces- 
sity men of stronger character ; for they had to swim against 
the stream, and hold by their convictions in the face of oblo- 
quy, opposition, and very often of active persecution. The 
sufferings they had endured for religion in the past, and per- 
haps the presentiment of heavier trials in the future, made 
them habitually grave and solemn in their demeanor. Their 
morals were severe as their piety was rigid. Their enemies 
called them sour and fanatical, but no one called in question 
their honesty and integrity.* " K the Nismes merchants," 
once wrote Baville, intendant of that province, and one of the 
bitterest persecutors of the Protestants, " are bad Catholics, 
at any rate they have not ceased to be very good traders." 
The Huguenot's word was as good as his bond, and to be 
" honest as a Huguenot" "passed into a proverb. This quali- 
ty of integrity — which is essential in the merchant who deals 
with foreigners whom h'e never sees — so characterized the 
business transactions of the Huguenots, that the foreign trade 
« 

* It is worthy of note, that while the Huguenots were stigmatized, in con- 
temporaiy Roman Catholic writings, as "heretics," "atheists," "blasphem- 
ers," "monsters vomited forth of hell," and the like, not a word is to be 
found in them as to their morality and integrity of character. The silence 
of their enemies on this head is perhaps the most eloquent testimony in their 
favor. 

What the Puritan was in England, and the Covenanter in Scotland, that 
the Huguenot was in France ; and that the system of Calvin should have 
developed precisely the same kind of men in these three several countries, 
affords a remarkable illustration of the power of religious training in the 
formation of character. 

The French Protestants' Confession of Faith, framed in 1559, was based 
on that of Geneva. Two sacraments only were recognized — Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper. Christ crucified was the centre of their faith, their car- 
dinal doctrines being justification by faith and Christ the only mediator with 
the Father. 

The Huguenot form of worship was simple, consisting in prayer and praise, 
followed by exhortation. The sermon was a principal feature in the Frencli 
Protestant service, and their ministers were chosen principally because of 
their ability as preachers. 

Their church government resembled that of the Scotch Church, being based 
on popular election. Each congregation was governed by its consistoire or 
kirk-session ; the congregations elected deputies, lay and clerical, to repre- 
sent them in the provincial synod, and colloque or provincial assembly ; and, 
finally, the whole congregations of France were represented in like manner 
by delegates in the Synode Nationale, or General Assembly. 



POLICY OF COLBERT. 135 

of the country fell almost entirely into their hands. The 
English and Dutch were always found more ready to open a 
correspondence with them than with the R-oman Catholic 
merchants, though religious affinity may possibly have had 
some influence in determining the preference. And thus at 
Bordeaux, at Rou-en, at Caen, at Metz, at Nismes, and the 
other great centres of commerce, the foreign business of 
France came to be almost entii'ely conducted by the Hugue- 
not merchants. 

The enlightened minister Colbert gave every encourage- 
ment to these valuable subjects. Entertaining the convic- 
tion that the strength of states consisted in the number, the 
intelligence, and the industry of their citizens, he labored in 
all ways to give effect to this idea. He encouraged the 
French to extend their manufactures, and at the same time 
held out inducements to skilled foreign artisans to settle in 
the kingdom and establish new branches of industry. The 
invitation was accepted, and considerable numbers of Dutch 
and Walloon Protestants came across the frontier and settled 
as cloth manufacturers in the northern provinces. Colbeit 
was the friend, so far as he dared to be, of the Huguenots, 
whose industry he encouraged, as the most effective means 
of enriching France, and enabling the nation to recover from 
the injuries inflicted upon it by the devastations and perse- 
cutions of the preceding century. With that object, he 
granted privileges, patents, monopolies, bounties, and honors, 
after the old-fashioned method of protecting industry. Some 
of these expedients were more harassing than prudent. One 
merchant, when consulted by Colbert as to the best means 
of encouraging commerce, answered curtly, " Laissez faire et 
laissez passer:" "Let us alone and let our goods pass" — a 
piece of advice which was not then appreciated or followed. 

Colbert also applied himself to the improvement of the in- 
ternal communications of the country. With his active as- 
sistance and co-operation, Riquet de Bonrepos was enabled 
to construct the magnificent canal of Langnedoc, which con- 



136 RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

nected tlie Bay of Biscay with tlie Mediterranean.* He re- 
stored tlie old roads of the country arid constructed new 
ones. He established free ports, sent consuls to the Levant, 
and secured a large trade with the Mediterranean. He 
bought Dunkirk and Mardyke from Charles H. of England, to 
the disgust of the English people. He founded dock-yards 
at Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort. He created the French 
navy ; and, instead of possessing only a few old ships lying 
rotting in harbors, in the course of thirty years France came 
to possess 190 vessels, of which 120 were ships of the line. 

Colbert, withal, was an honest man. His predecessor Maz- 
arin had amassed a gigantic fortune, while Colbert died pos- 
sessed of a modest fortune, the fruits of long labor and rigid 
economy. His admiaistration of the finances was admirable. 
When he assumed office, the state was overburdened by debt 
and all but bankrupt. The public books were in an inextri- 
cable state of confusion. His first object was to get rid 
of the debt by an arbitrary composition, which was tanta- 
mount to an act of bankruptcy. He simplified the public 
accounts, economized the collection of the taxes, cut off un- 
necessary expenditure, and reduced the direct taxation, plac- 
ing his chief dependence upon indirect taxes on articles of 
consumption. After thirty years' labor, he succeeded in 
raising the revenue from thirty-two millions of livres to nine- 
ty-two millions net — one half only of the increase being due 
to additional taxation, the other half to better order and 
economy in the collection. 

At the same time, Colbert was public-spirited and gener- 
ous. He encouraged literature and the arts, as well as agri- 
culture and commerce. He granted £160,000 in pensions to 
men of letters and science, among whom we find the names 
of the two Corneilles, Moli^re, Racine, Perrault, and Mezerai. 
Nor did he confine his liberality to the distinguished men of 
France, for he was equally liberal to foreigners who had set- 

* For an account of this great work, and Colbert's part in it, see Bnndley 
and the Early Engineers, p. 301 . 



POLICY OF COLBERT. 137 

tied in the country. Thus Huyghens, the distinguished 
Dutch natural philosopher, and Yossius, the geographer, 
were among his list of pensioners. He granted £208,000 to 
the Gobelins and other manufactures in Paris, besides other 
donations to those in the provinces. He munificently sup- 
ported the Paris Observatories, and contributed to found the 
Academy of Inscriptions, the Academy of Sciences, and the 
Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In short, Colbert was 
one of the most enlightened, sagacious, liberal, and honorable 
ministers who ever served a monarch or a nation. 

But behind the splendid ordonnances of Colbert there 
stood a superior power, the master of France himself — " the 
Most Christian King," Louis XIY. Richelieu and Mazarin 
had, by crushing all other powers in the state — nobles. Par- 
liament, and people — prepared the way for the reign of this 
most absolute and uncontrolled of French monarchs.* He 
was proud, ambitious, fond of power, and believed himself to 
be the greatest of men. He would have every thing centre 
in the king's majesty. At the death of Mazarin in 1661, 
when his ministers asked to whom they were thenceforward 
to address themselves, his reply was, " A mol" The well- 
laiown saying, " L'etat, c'est moi," belongs to him. And his 
people took him at his word. They bowed down before him 
— rank, talent, and beauty — and vied with each other who 
should bow the lowest. 

While Colbert was striving to restore the finances of 
France by the peaceful development of its industry, the 
magnificent king, his mind far above mercantile considera- 
tions, was bent on achieving glory by the conquest of adjoin- 
ing territories. Thus, while the minister was, in 1668, en- 
gaged in laboriously organizing his commercial system, Louis 

* The engrained absolutism and egotism of Louis XIV., M. Feuillet con- 
tends, were at their acme from his earliest years. In the public library at 
St. Petersburg, under a glass case, may be seen one of the copy-books in 
which he practiced writing when a child. Instead of such maxims as "Evil 
communications con'upt good manners," or "Virtue is its own reward," the 
copy set for him was this: "Lesroisfont tout ce qu'ils veulent." — Edin. 
Review. 



138 RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

wrote to Charles EC. with the air of an Alexander the Great, 
saying, " K the English are satisfied to he the merchants of 
the world, and leave me to conquer it, the matter can be easi- 
ly arranged : of the commerce of the globe, three parts to 
England, and one part to France."* IsTor was this a mere 
whim of the king ; it was the fixed idea of his life. 

Louis went to war with Spain. He overran Flanders, 
won victories, and France paid for the glory in an increase 
of taxes. He next made war with Holland. There were 
more battles, and less glory, but the same inevitable taxes. 
War in Germany followed, during which there were the 
great sieges of Besan9on, Salin, and Dole ; though this time 
there was no glory. Again Colbert was appealed to for 
money. But France had already been taxed almost to the 
utmost. The king told the minister in 1673 that he must 
find sixty millions of livres more ; " if he did not, aJiother 
would?'' Thus the war had become a question mainly of 
money, and money Colbert must find. Forced loans were 
then had recourse to, the taxes were increased, honors and 
places were sold, and the money was eventually raised. 

The extravagance of Louis knew no bounds. Versailles 
was pulled down, and rebuilt at enormous cost. Lnmense 
sums were lavished in carrying out the designs of Yauban, 
and France was surrounded with a belt of three hundred for- 
tresses. Various other spendthrift schemes were set on foot, 
until Louis had accumulated a debt equal to £100,000,000 
sterling. Colbert at last succumbed, crushed in body and 
mind. He died in 1683, worn out with toil, mortified and 
heart-broken at the failure of all his plans. The people, en- 
raged at the taxes which oppressed them, laid the blame 
at the door of the minister; and his corpse was buried at 
night, attended by a military escort to protect it from the 
fury of the mob.f 

* MiGNEX — Negoc. de la Success. d'Esp., iii., 63. 

t II etait raort de la ruine publique, mort de ne pouvoir rien et d'avoir 
perdu I'esperance. On lui cherchait de querelles ridicules. Le roi lui re- 
prochait la ddpense de Versailles, fait malgre lui. II lui citait Louvois, ces 



THE KING'S ENMITY TO THE HUGUENOTS. 139 

Colbert did not live to witness the more disgraceful events 
which characterized the later part of the reign of Louis XIV. 
The wars which that monarch waged with Spain, Germany, 
and Holland, for conquest and glory, were carried on against 
men with arms in their hands, capable of defending them- 
selves. But the wars which he waged against his own sub- 
jects — the dragonnades and persecutions which preceded and 
followed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, of which the 
victims were defenseless men, women, and children — were 
simply ferocious and barbarous, and must ever attach the 
reputation of Lifamous to the name of Louis XrV.,in histoiy 
miscalled "The Great." 

One of the king's first acts, on assuming the supreme con- 
trol of affairs at the death of Mazarin, was significant of his 
future policy with regard to the Huguenots. Among the 
representatives of the various public bodies who came to 
tender him their congratulations, there appeared a deputa- 
tion of Protestant ministers, headed by their president Vig- 
nole ; but the king refused to receive them, and directed that 
they should be ordered to leave Paris forthwith. Louis was 
not slow to follow up this intimation by measures of a more 
positive kind, for he had been carefully taught to hate Prot- 
estantism; and, now that he possessed unrestrained power, 
he flattered himself with the idea of compelling the Hugue- 
nots to abandon their convictions and adopt his own. His 
minister Louvois wrote to the governors throughout the 
provinces that "his majesty will not suffer any person in his 
kingdom but those who are of Ms religion ;" and orders were 
shortly after issued that Protestantism must cease to exist, 
and that the Huguenots must every where conform to the 
royal will. 

travaux de ina90iinerie et des tranchees faits pour ricn par le soldat, le pay- 
san, comme si les travaux d'art d'un palais etaient meme chose. II I'acheva 
en le querillant sur le prix de la grille de Versailles. Colbert i-eutra, s'alita, 
ne se leva pas. . . . L'immense malediction sous laquelle il mourait, 
le troubla a son lit de mort. Un lettre du roi lui vint, et il ne voulat pas la 
lire : " Si j'avais fait pour Dieu," dit il, " ce que j'ai fait pour cet homme, je 
serais sur d'etre sauve, et je ne sais pas oil je vais . . . ." — Michklet — 
Zx)MwX/P^, p. 276-282. 



140 RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

A series of edicts was accordingly published with the ob- 
ject of carrying the king's purposes into effect. The confer- 
ences of the Protestants were declared to be suppressed. 
Though worship was still permitted in their churches, the 
singing of psalms in private dwellings was declared to be 
forbidden. Spies were sent among them, to report the terms 
on which the Huguenot pastors spoke of the Roman Catho- 
lic religion, and if any fault could be found with them, they 
were cited before the tribunals for blasphemy. The piiests 
were authorized to enter the chambers of sick Protestants, 
and entreat them whether they would be converted or die in 
their heresy. Protestant children were invited to declare 
themselves against the religion of their parents. Boys of 
fourteen and girls of twelve years old might, on embracing 
Roman Catholicism, become enfranchised and entirely free 
from parental control In that case the parents were further 
required to place and maintain their children in any Roman 
Catholic school into which they might wish to go.* 

The Huguenots were again debarred from holding public 
offices, though a few, such as Marshal Turenne and Admiral 
Duquesne, who were Protestants, broke through this barrier 
by the splendor of their services to the state. In some prov- 
inces, the exclusion was so severe that a profession of the 
Roman Catholic faith was required from simple artisans — 
shoemakers, carpenters, and the like — before they were jjer- 
mitted to labor at their callings, f 

Colbert, while he lived, endeavored to restrain the king, 
and to abate these intolerable persecutions, which dogged 
the Huguenots at every step. He continued to employ them 

* Ordinance of 24:th March, 1661. 

t A ludicrous instance of this occurred at Paris, where the corporation of 
laundresses laid a remonstrance before the council that their community, 
having been instituted by St. Louis, could not admit heretics, and this rec- 
lamation was gi-avely confii-med by a decree of the 21st of August, 1665. 
The corporation nevertheless notoriously contained many abandoned women, 
but the orthodox laundresses were more distressed by heresy than by profli- 
gacy. — De Felice — Histoi-y of the Frotestants of France, -p. 296 — Transl, 
London, 1853. 



THE PERSECUTION RENEWED. 141 

in the departments of finance, finding no honester nor abler 
servants. He also encouraged the merchants and manufac- 
turers to persevere in their industrial operations, which he 
regarded as essential to the prosperity and well-being of the 
kingdom. He took the opportunity of cautioning the king 
lest the measures he was enforcing might tend, if carried out, 
to the impoverishment of France and the aggrandizement of 
her rivals. " I am sorry to say it," said he to Louis, " that 
too many of your majesty's subjects are already among your 
neighbors as footmen and valets for their daily bread ; many 
of the artisans, too, are fled from the severity of your collect- 
ors; they are at this time improving the manufactures of 
your enemies." But all Colbert's expostulations were in 
vain; the Jesuits were stronger than he was, and the king 
was in their hands ; besides, Colbert's power was on the de- 
cline, and he, too, had to succumb to the will of Ms royal 
master, who would not relieve even the highest genius 
from that absolute submission which he required from his 
courtiers. 

In 1666 the queen-mother died, leaving to her son, as her 
last bequest, that he should suppress and exterminate heresy 
within his dominions. The king knew that he had often 
grieved his royal mother by his notorious licentiousness, and 
he was now ready to atone for the wickedness of his past life 
by obeying her wishes. The Bishop of Meaux exhorted him 
to press on in the path his sainted mother had pointed out to 
him. " Oh kings !" said he, " exercise your power boldly, for 
it is divine — ye are gods !'* Louis was not slack in obeying 
the injunction, which so completely fell in with his own ideas 
of royal omnipotence. 

. The Huguenots had already taken alarm at the renewal 
of the persecution, and such of them as could readily dis- 
pose of their property and goods were beginning to leave 
the kingdom in considerable numbers for the purpose of es- 
tablishing themselves in foreign countries. To prevent this, 
the king issued an edict forbidding French subjects from 



U2 RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

proceeding abroad without express permission, under pen- 
alty of confiscation of their goods and property. This was 
followed hy a succession of severe measures for the conver- 
sion or extii'pation of such of the Protestants — in numbers 
about a million and a half — as had not by this time con- 
trived to make their escape from the kingdom. The kidnap- 
ping of Protestant children was actively set on foot by the 
agents of the Roman Catholic priests, and theii* parents were 
subjected to heavy penalties if they ventured to complain. 
Orders were issued to pull down the Protestant places of 
worship, and as many as eighty were shortly destroyed in 
one diocese. 

The Huguenots offered no resistance. All that they did 
was to meet together and pray that the king's heart might 
yet be softened toward them. Blow upon blow followed. 
Protestants were forbidden to print books without the au- 
thority of magistrates of the Romish communion. Protest- 
ant teachers were interdicted from teaching children any 
thing more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. Such pas- 
tors as held meetings amid the ruins of the churches which 
had been pulled down were condemned to do penance with 
a rope round their neck, after which they were to be banish- 
ed the kingdom. Protestants were only allowed to bury 
their dead at daybreak or at nightfall. They were prohib- 
ited from singing psalms on land or on water, in workshops 
or in dwellings. If a priestly procession passed one of their 
churches while the psalms were being sung, they must stop 
instantly on pain of the fine or imprisonment of the officia- 
ting' minister. 

In short, from the pettiest annoyance to the most exasper- 
ating cruelty, nothing was wanting on the part of the "Most 
Christian King" and his abettors. Their intention probably 
was to exasperate the Huguenots into open resistance, with 
the object of finding a pretext for a second massacre of St. 
Bartholomew. But the Huguenots would not be exasper- 
ated. They bore their trials bravely and patiently, hoping 



MADAME DE MAINTENON. 143 



and praying that the king's heart would yet relent, and that 
they might still be permitted to worship God according to 
conscience. 

All their patience and resignation were however in vain, 
and from day to day the persecution became more oppressive 
and intolerable. In the intervals of his scandalous amours 
the king held conferences with his spiritual directors, to 
whom he was from time to time driven by bilious disease 
and the fear of death. He forsook Madame de la Yalliere 
for Madame de Montespan, and Madame de Montespan for 
Madame de Maintenon, ever and anon taking counsel with 
his Jesuit confessor, Pere La Chaise. Madame de Maintenon 
was the instrument of the latter, and between the two the 
" conversion" of the king was believed to be imminent. In 
his recuiTing attacks of iUness his conscience became increas- 
ingly uneasy ; confessor and mistress co-operated in turning 
his moroseness to account ; and it was observed that every 
royal attack of bile was followed by some new edict of per- 
secution against the Huguenots. 

Madame de Maintenon, the last favorite, was the widow 
of Scarron, the deformed wit and scoffer. She belonged to 
the celebrated Huguenot family of D'Aubigny, her grandfa- 
ther having been one of the most devoted followers of Hen- 
ry IV. Her father led a profligate life, but she herself was 
brought up in the family faith. A Roman Catholic relative, 
however, acting on the authority conferred by the royal edict 
of abducting Protestant children, had the girl forcibly con- 
veyed to the convent of IJrsulines at l^iort, from which she 
was transferred to the Ursulines at Paris, where, after some 
resistance, she abjured her faith and became a Roman Catho- 
lic. She left the convent to enter the world through Scar- 
ron's door. When the witty cripple married her, he said 
" his bride had brought with her an annual income of four 
louis, two large and very mischievous eyes, a fine bust, an ex- 
quisite pair of hands, and a large amount of wit." 

Scarron's house was the resort of the gayest and loosest as 



lU RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

well as the most accomplished persons of the time, and there 
his young wife acquired that knowledge of the world, and 
conversational accomplishment, and probahly social ambi- 
tion, which she afterward turned so artfully and unscrupu- 
lously to account. One of her intimate friends was the no- 
torious ]N'inon de FEnclos, and it is not improbable that the 
sight of that woman, courted by the fashionable world after 
thirty years of polished profligacy, exercised a powerful in- 
fluence on the subsequent career of Madame Scarron. 

At Scarron's death, his young widow succeeded in ob- 
taining the post of governess to the children of Madame de 
Montespan, the king's then mistress, whom she speedily su- 
perseded. She secured a footing in the king's chamber, to 
the exclusion of the queen, who was dying by inches,"* and 
by her adroitness, tact, and pretended devotion, she contrived 
to exercise an extraordinary influence over Louis — so much 
so that at length even the priests could only obtain access 
to him through her. She undertook to assist them in effect- 
ing his " conversion," and labored at the work four hours a 
day, reporting progress from time to time to P^re la Chaise, 
his confessor. She early discovered the king's rooted hatred 
toward the Huguenots, and conformed herself to it accord- 
ingly, increasing her influence over him by artfully fanning 
the flames of his fury against her quondam co-religionists ; 
and fiercer and fiercer edicts were issued against them in 
quick succession. 

Before the extremest measures were however resorted to, 
an attempt was made to buy over the Protestants wholesale. 
The king consecrated to this traffic one third of the revenue 
of the benefices which fell to the crown during the period of 
their vacancy, and the fund became very large through the 
benefices being purposely left vacant. A " converted" Hu- 

* Le roi tua la reine, comme Colbert, sans s'en apercevoir Elle 

mourut (30 juillet, 1683). Madame de Maintenon la quittait expiree et 
sortait de la chambre, lorsque M. de la Rochefoucauld la prit par les bras, 
lui dit : *< Le roi a besoin de vous." Et il la poussa chez le roi. A Tinstant 
tous le deux partirent pour Saint-Cloud. — Michelet, 273-4. 



THE DRAGONNADES. 145 

guenot named Pelisson was employed to administer the fund, 
and he published long lists of " conversions" in the Gazette, 
but he concealed the fact that the takers of his bribes be- 
longed to the dregs of the people. At length many were 
detected undergoing " conversion" several times over, upon 
which a proclamation was published that persons found guil- 
ty of this offense would have their goods and property for- 
feited, and be sentenced to perpetual banishment. 

The great body of the Huguenots remaining immovable 
and refusing to be converted, it was fo.und necessary to re- 
sort to more violent measures. They were next attacked in 
their tenderest place — through their affections. Childi'en of 
seven years old were empowered to leave their parents and 
become converted ; and many were forcibly abducted from 
their homes, and immured in convent-prisons for education m 
the Romish faith at the expense of theii* parents. Another 
exquisite stroke of cruelty followed. While Huguenots as 
conformed were declared to be exempt from supplying quar- 
ters for the soldiery, the obstinate and unconverted were or- 
dered to have an extra number quartered on them. Louvois 
wrote to Marillac, intendant of Poitou, in March, 1681, that he 
was about to send a regiment of horse into that province. 
" His majesty," he said, " has heard with much joy of the 
great number of persons who continue to be converted in 
your department. He wishes you to persist in your endeav- 
ors, and desires that the greater number of horsemen and 
officers should be billeted upon the Protestants. If, accord- 
ing to a just distribution, ten would be quartered upon the 
members of the Reformed religion, you may order them to 
accommodate twenty."* The opposition of Colbert for a 
time delayed the execution of this project, but not for long. 
It was the first attempt at the dragonnades. 

Two years later, in 1683, the year of Colbert's death, the 
military executions began. Pity, terror, and anguish had by 
turns agitated the minds of the Protestants, until at length 

* De Felice — History of the. Protestants of France,]^. 515. 

K 



Ue RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

they were reduced to a state almost of despair. Life was 
made almost intolerable to them. All careers were closed 
against them, and Protestants of the working class were un- 
der the necessity of abjuring or starving. The mob, observ- 
ing that the Protestants were no longer within the pale of 
the law, took the opportunity of wreaking all manner of out- 
rages on them. They broke into their churches, tore up the 
benches, and, placing the Bibles and hymn-books in a pile, 
set the whole on fire ; the authorities usually settmg their 
sanction on the proceedings of the rioters by banishing the 
burned-out ministers, and interdicting the further celebration 
of worship in the destroyed churches. 

The Huguenots of Dauphiny were at last stung into a 
show of resistance, and furnished the king with the pretext 
■ which he wanted for ordering a general slaughter of those 
of his subjects who would not be " converted" to his religion. 
A large congregation of Huguenots assembled one day amid 
the ruins of a wrecked church to celebrate worship and pray 
for the king. The Roman Catholics thereupon raised the 
alarm that this meeting was held for the purpose of organiz- 
ing a rebellion. The spark thus kindled in Dauphiny burst 
into flame in the Yiverais and even in Languedoc, and troops 
were brought from all quarters to crush. the apprehended 
outbreak. Meanwhile the Huguenots continued to hold 
their religious meetings, and a number of them were found 
one day assembled outside Bordeaux, where they had met to 
pray. There the dragoons fell upon them, cutting down 
hundreds, and dispersing the rest. " It was a mere butch- 
ery," says Rulhieres, " without the show of a combat." Sev- 
eral were apprehended and offered pardon if they would ab- 
jure ; but they refused, and were hanged. 

Noailles, then governor, seized the opportunity of advanc- 
ing himself in the royal favor by ordering a general massacre. 
He obeyed to the letter the cruel orders of Louvois, the 
king's minister, who prescribed desolation. Cruelty raged 
for a time uncontrolled from Grenoble to Bordeaux. There 



PERSECUTION OF TEE BUG UENOTS. 147 

were massacres in the Viverais and massacres in the Ceven- 
nes. An entire army had converged on l^ismes, and there 
was so horrible a dragonnade that the city was " converted" 
in twenty-four hours. JSToailles wrote to the king that there 
had indeed been some slight disorder, but that every thing 
had been conducted with great judgment and discipline, and 
he promised with his head that before the next 25th of No- 
vember there would be no more Huguenots in Languedoc* 

Like cruelties followed all over France. More Protestant 
churches were pulled down, and the property that belonged 
to them was confiscated for the benefit of the Roman Catho- 
lic hospitals. Many of the Huguenot land-owners had al- 
ready left the kingdom, and others were preparing to follow 
them. But this did not suit the views of the monarch and 
his advisers ; and the ordinances were ordered to be put in 
force which interdicted emigration, with the addition of con- 
demnation to the galleys for life of heads of families found 
attempting to escape, and a fine of three thousand livres 
against any person found encouraging or assisting them. By 
the same ordinance all contracts for the sales of property 
made by the Reformed one year before the date of their em- 
igration were declared nullified. The consequence was that 
many landed estates were seized and sold, of which Madame 
de Maintenon, the king's mistress, artfully improved the op- 
portunity. Writing to her brother, for whom she had ob- 
tained from the king a gratuity of 800,000 francs, she said : 
" I beg of you carefully to use the money you are about to 
receive. Estates in Poitou may be got for nothing ; the des- 
olation of the Huguenots will drive them to sell more. You 
may easily acquire extensive possessions in Poitou."* 

Thus were the poor Huguenots trodden under foot — per- 
secuted, maltreated, fined, flogged, hanged, or sabred ; never- 
theless, many of those who survived still remained faithful. 
Toward the end of 1684 a painful incident occurred at Maren- 

* Memoir es de Noailks, 15 ; Michelet — Louis XJV., 275-6. 
t De Teuce — Book iii., chap, xv., p. 317. 



us RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

neSj.in Saintonge, where tlie Reformed religion extensively 
prevailed, notwithstanding the ferocity of the persecution. 
The church there comprised from 13,000 to 14,000 persons; 
but on the pretense that some children of the new converts 
to Romanism had been permitted to enter the buildmg (a 
crime in the eye of the law), the congregation was ordered, 
late one Saturday evening, to be suppressed. On the Sunday 
morning a large number of worshipers appeared at the church 
doors, some of whom had come from a great distance — then- 
own churches being already closed or pulled down — and 
among them were twenty-three infants brought for baptism. 
It was winter ; the cold was intense ; and no shelter being 
permitted within the closed church, the poor things were 
mostly frozen to death on their mothers' bosoms. Loud sob- 
bing and wailing rose from the crowd ; all wept, even the 
men ; but they found consolation in prayer, and resolved, in 
this their darkest hour, to be faithful to the end, even unto 
death. 

A large body of troops lay encamped in Beam in the early 
part of 1685, to watch the movements of the Spanish army; 
but a truce having been agreed upon, the Marquis de Lou- 
vois resolved to employ his regiment in converting the Hu- 
guenots of the surrounding districts after the methods adopt- 
ed by Noailles at ISTismes. Some hundreds of Bearnese Prot- 
estants having been driven by force into a church where the 
Bishop of Lescar officiated, the doors were closed, and the 
poor people compelled to kneel down and receive the bish- 
op's absolution at the point of the sword. To escape their 
tormentors, the Reformed fled into the woods, the wilder- 
nesses, and the caverns of the Pyrenees. They were pursued 
like wild beasts, brought back to their dwellings by force, 
and compelled to board and lodge their persecutors. The 
dragoons entered the houses with drawn swords, shouting 
" Kill, kill, or become Catholics." The scenes of brutal out- 
rage which occurred during these dragonnades can not be 
described. These soldiers were among the roughest, loosest, 



DRA G ONNADES IN BEAEN. 149 

cruelest of men.* They susiDended tlieir victims with ropes, 
blowing tobacco-smoke into their nostrils and mouths,' and 
practicing upon them a hundred other nameless cruelties, 
until they reduced their hosts to a condition of not knowing 
what they did, and of promising every thing to rid them- 
selves of their tormentors, f No wonder that the constancy 
of the Bearnese at length yielded to the prolonged rigor of 
these torments, and that they hastened to the priests in 
crowds to abjure their religion. 

The success of the dragonnades in enforcing conversion in 
Beam encouraged the king to employ the same means else- 
where, and in the course of four months, Languedoc, G-uienne, 
'Saint onge, Poitou, Viverais, Dauphiny, Cevennes, Provence, 
and Gex were scoured by the new missionaries of the Church. 
Neither age nor sex was spared. The men who refused to 
be converted were thrown into dungeons, and the women 
were immured in prison-convents. Louvois thus reported 
the results of his operations, in September, 1685: "Sixty 
thousand conversions have been made in the district of Bor- 

* Michelet says the word given to them by theh" commander, Luxembourg, 
when in Holland, was, "Amusez vous, enfants! pillez et violez!" and he 
adds the following description of " M. le dragon :" " Eosse par I'officier, il le 
rendit au paysan. Vrai singe, il aimait a mal fau-e, et plus mal que les au- 
ti-es ; c'etait son amour-propre. H etait ravi d'etre craint, criait, cassait, bat- 
tait, tenait k ce qu'on dit. Le dragon c'est le diable ^ quatre."— ioww XIV. 
et la R&vocation de VEdlt de Nantes, p. 304-5. Such were the soldiery who 
proceeded to persecute the men, women, and childi-en of the pro-vance of 
Beam ; and every tortui-e which they could inflict witliout killing them out- 
right, they inflicted on the Huguenots. 

t EHe Benoit, in his History of the Edict of Nantes, fills page after page 
with descriptions of the cruelties perpetrated by the dragoons on the poor Hu- 
guenots. In one passage he says : "The horsemen fastened crosses to the 
mouth of their musquetoons to compel the people to kiss them by force, and 
when they met with any resistance, they thrust their crosses into the face and 
stomach of their unhappy victims. They spared childi'en as. little as persons 
of more advanced age, and, without the shghtest regard for their years, they 
loaded them \vith blows with the flat of their swords, or with the butt-end of 
their musquetoons ; and such was their violence, that many were made crip- 
ples for hfe. These infamous wretches took a pleasure in maltreating wom- 
en. They beat them with whips ; they struck them on the face with canes 
in order to disfigure them ; they dragged them by their hair in the mud and 
over the stones. Sometimes the soldiers, meeting laborers on the road, or 
with their carts, di'ove them to the Roman Catholic churches, pricking them 
like cattle with then." spurs to hasten their unwilling march." 



150 RENEWED PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 

deauxj and twenty thousand in tliat of Montanban. So rapid 
is the progress, that before the end of the month ten thousand 
Protestants will not be left in the district of Bordeaux, where 
there were one hundred and fifty thousand on the 15th of last 
month." IToailles wrote to a similar effect from Nismes: 
"The most influential people," said he, " abjured in the church 
the day following my arrival. There was a slackening after- 
ward, but matters soon assumed a proper shape with the help 
of some billetings on the dwellings of the most obstinate." 

In the mean time, while these forced conversions of the 
Huguenots were being made by the dragoons of De Louvois 
and De ISToailles, Madame de Maintenon continued to labor at 
the conversion of the king himself She was materially as- 
sisted by her royal paramour's bad digestion, and by the 
qualms of conscience which from time to time beset him at 
the dissoluteness of his past life. Every twinge of pain, every 
fit of colic, every prick of conscience, was succeeded by new 
resolutions to extirpate heresy. Penance must be done for 
his incontmence, but not by hiinself It was the virtuous 
Huguenots that must suffer vicariously for him ; and, by pun- 
ishing them, he flattered himself that he was expiating his 
own sins. " It was not only his amours which deserve cen- 
sure," says Sismondi, " although the scandal of their public- 
ity, the dignities to which he raised the children of his adul- 
tery, and the constant humiliation to which he subjected his 
wife, add greatly to his offense against public morality. . . 
He acknowledged in his judgments, and in his rigor toward 
his people, no rule but his own will. At the very moment 
that his subjects were dying of famine, he retrenched nothing 
from his. prodigalities. Those who boasted of having con- 
verted him had never represented to him more than two du- 
ties — that of renouncing his incontinence, and that of extir- 
pating heresy in his dominions."* 

The farce of Louis's " conversion" went on. In August, 
1684, Madame de Mainteiion wrote thus : " The king is pre- 
* De Sismondi— ^isfoiVe de France^ t. xxv., p. 481. 



. ''CONVERSION'' OF LOUIS XIV. 151 

pared to do every thing that shall he judged useful for the 
welfare of religion; this undertaking will cover him with 
glory hefore God and man !" The dragonnades were then in 
full career throughout the southern provinces, and a long 
wail of anguish was rising from the persecuted all over 
France. In 1685 the king's sufferings increased, and his con- 
version hecame imminent. His miserable body was already 
beginning to decay; but he was willing to make a sacrifice 
to God of what the devil had left of it. Kot only did he lose 
his teeth, but caries in the jaw-bone developed itself; and 
when he drank the liquid passed through his nostrils.* In 
this shocking state Madame de Maintenon became his nurse. 

The Jesuits now obtained all that they wanted. They 
made a compact with Madame by which she was to advise 
the king to revoke the Edict of Kantes, while they were to 
consent to her marriage with him. P5re la Chaise, his con- 
fessor, advised a private marriage, and the ceremony was per- 
formed at Versailles by the archbishop of Paris, in the pres- 
ence of the confessor and two more witnesses. The precise 
date of the transaction is not known ; but it is surmised that 
the edict was revoked one day, and the marriage took place 
the next.f 

The Act of Revocation was published on the 2 2d of Octo- 
ber, 1685. It was the death-knell of the Huguenots. 

* Michelet cites as his authority for this statement Journal MS. des Mede- 
cins, 1685. 

t Madame dit (Memoires, ii., lOS) que le marriage eut lieu deiix ans apres 
la niort de h reine, done dans les derniers mois de 1685. M. de Noailles (ii., 
121) etahlit la meme date. Pour le jour precis, on I'ignore. On doit con- 
jecturer qu'il eut lieu apr^s le jour de la Revocation declarde a la fin d'Oc- 
tobre, ce jour oh le roi tint parole, accorda I'acte qu'elle avait consenti, et ou 
elle fut ainsi engagee sans retour. — Michelet — Louis X.IV. et la Revoca- 
tion, p. 300. 



CHAPTER Vm 

RENEWED FLIGHT OP THE HUGITENOTS. 

Geeat -was the rejoicing of the Jesuits on the Revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes. Rome sprang up with a shout of joy 
to celebrate the event. Te Deums were sung, processions 
went from shrine to shrine, and the Pope sent a brief to 
Louis conveying to him the congratulations and praises of 
the Romish Church. Public thanksgivings were held at 
Paris, in which the people eagerly took part, thus making 
themselves accomplices in the proscription by the king of 
their fellow-subjects. The provost and sheriffs had a statue 
of Louis erected at the Hotel de Yille, bearing the inscription 
Znidumco Magno^ mctoriperpetuo, ecdesia ac regicm, dignitatis 
asserton* Leseuer was employed to ij^aint the subject for the 
gallery at Versailles, and medals were struck to commemo- 
rate the extinction of Protestantism in France. 

The Roman Catholic clergy were almost beside themselves 
with joy. The eloquent Bossuet was especially fervent in 
his praises of the ipionarch : " Touched by so many marvels," 
said he (15th of January, 1686), "let us expand our hearts in 
praise of the piety of the Great Louis. Let our acclamations 
ascend to heaven, and let us say to this new Constantino, this 
new Theodosius, what the six hundred and thirty fathers said 
in the Council of Chalcedon, *You have strengthened the 
faith, you have exterminated the heretics : King of Heaven, 
preserve the king of earth.' " Massillon also indulged in a 
like strain of exultation : " The profane temples," said he, " are 
destroyed, the pulpits of seduction are cast down, the proph- 
ets of falsehood are torn from their flocks. At the first blow 
dealt to it by Louis, heresy falls, disappears, and is reduced 

* The statue was puUed down in 1792, and cast into cannon which thun- 
dered at Vahny. 



TRE MILITARY J A CQ UERIE. 153 

either to Mde itself in the obscurity whence it issued, or to 
cross the seas, and to bear with it into foreign lands its false 
gods, its bitterness, and its rage." 

Let us now see what the Revocation of the Edict of ISTantes 
involved. The demolition of all the remaining Protestant 
temples throughout France, and the entire proscription of 
the Protestant religion ; the prohibition of even private wor- 
ship under penalty of confiscation of body and property ; 
the banishment of all Protestant pastors from France within 
fifteen days ; the closiQg of all Protestant schools ; the pro- 
hibition of parents to instruct their children in the Protest- 
ant faith; the injunction upon them, under a penalty of five 
hundred livi-es in each case, to have their children baptized 
by the parish priest, and brought up in the Roman Catholic 
religion; the confiscation of the property and goods of all 
Protestant refusrees who failed to return to France within 
four months ; the penalty of the galleys for life to all men, 
and of imprisonment for life to all women, detected in the 
act of attempting to escape from France. 

Such were a few of the cruel, dastardly, and inhuman pro- 
visions of the Edict of Revocation. Such were the marvels 
of the piety of the Great Louis, which were so eloquently eu- 
logized by Bossuet and Massillon. The Edict of Revocation 
was a proclamation of war by the armed against the un- 
armed — a war against peaceable men, women, and children 
— a war against property, against family, against society, 
against public morality, and, more than all, against the rights 
of conscience. 

The military jacquerie at once began. The very day on 
which the Edict of Revocation was registered, steps were 
taken to destroy the great Protestant church at Charenton, 
near Paris. It had been the work of the celebrated architect 
Debrosses, and was capable of containing 14,000 persons. In 
five days it was leveled with the ground. The great temple 
of Quevilly, near Rouen, of nearly equal size, in which the cel- 
ebrated minister Jacques Basnage preached, was in like man- 



154 RENEWED FLIGHT OF HUGUENOTS. 

ner demolislied. At Tours, at Nismes, at MontauTDan, and all 
over France, the same scenes were enacted, the mob eagerly 
joining in the work of demolition with levers and pickaxes. 
Eight hundred Protestant churches were thus thrown down 
in a few weeks. 

The provisions of the Edict of Revocation were rigorously 
put in force, and they were succeeded by numerous others of 
like spirit. Thus Protestants were commanded to employ 
only Roman Catholic servants, under penalty of a fine of 
1000 livres, while Protestant servants were forbidden to serve 
either Protestant or Roman Catholic employers. If any men- 
servants were detected violating this law, they were to be 
sent to the galleys; whereas women-servants were to be 
flogged and branded with 2^ fleur-de-lis — the emblazonment 
of the "Most Christian King." Protestant pastors found 
lurking in France after the expiry of the fifteen days were 
to be condemned to death ; and any of the king's subjects 
found giving harbor to the pastors were to be condemned — 
the men to be galley-slaves, the women to imprisonment for 
life. The reward of 5500 livres was ofiered for the appre- 
hension of any Protestant pastor. 

The Huguenots were not even permitted to die in peace, 

but were pursued to death's door and into the grave itself. 

They were forbidden to solicit the offices of those of their 

own faith, and were required to confess and receive unction 

from the priests, on penalty of having their bodies when dead 

removed from their dwelling by the common hangman and 

flung into the public sewer.* In the event of the sick Prot- 

* The body of the distinguished M. de Chenevix was subjected to this bru- 
tal indignity. He was a gentleman illustiious for his learning and piety, and 
had been councilor to the king in the court of Metz. In 168G he fell dan- 
gerously ill, when the curate of the parish, forcing himself into his presence, 
importuned him to confess, when he replied that he dechned to confess to 
any but God, who alone could forgive his sins. The archbishop next visited 
hum, urging him to communicate before he died, at the same time informing 
him of the penalties decreed by the king against such as died without receiv- 
ing the sacrament. He refused, declaring that he would never communicate 
after the popish manner. At his death, shortly after, orders were given that 
his body should be removed by the executioner ; and his coi'pse was accord- 
ingly taken, dragged away on a hurdle, and cast upon a dunghill. About 



CONSTANCY OF THE HUGUENOTS. 



estant recovering, after having rejected the viaticum, he was 
to be condemned to perpetual confinement at the galleys, or 
imprisonment for life, with confiscation of all his property. 
Such were the measures by which the Great Louis sought to 
win back erring souls to Rome. 

Crushed, tormented, and persecuted by these terrible en- 
actments, the Huguenots felt that life in France had become 
almost intolerable. It is true there was one alternative — 
conversion. But Louis XIV., with all his power, could not 
prevail against the impenetrable rampart of conscience, and 
a large proportion of the Huguenots persistently refused to 
be converted. They would not act the terrible lie to God, 
and seek their personal safety at the price of hypocrisy. 
They would not become Roman Catholics ; they would rather 
die. There was only one other means of relief— flight from 
France. Yet it was a frightful alternative, to tear themselves 
from the country they loved, from friends and relatives, from 
the homes of their youth and the graves of their kindred, and 
fly — they knew not whither. The thought of self-banishment 
was so agonizing that many hesitated long and prepared to 
endure much before taking the irrevocable step ; and many 
more prepared to suffer death rather than leave their country 
and their home. 

Indeed, to fly in any direction became increasingly diifficult 
from day to day. The frontiers were strongly patroled by 
troops and gensdarmes ; the coast was closely watched by an 

four hundred of his friends, of whom the greater numher -were women, pro- 
ceeded thither by night to fetch the body away. They wrapped it in linen ; 
four men bore it aloft on then: shoulders, and they buried it in a garden. 
While the corpse was being let down into the grave, the mourning assembly 
sang the 79th Psalm, beginning, " Save me, God, for the waters are come 
into my soul." The brother of M. de Chene%'ix was a Protestant pastor, who 
was forced to fly at the Revocation, and took refuge in England. His son 
was a distinguished officer in the British army, and his gi'andson was made 
bishop of Killaloe in 1 745, and afterward of Waterford and Lismore, The 
present Archbishop of Dubhn, Richai-d Chenevix Trench, is his great grand- 
son by the mother's side, being also descended, by the father's side, from 
another Huguenot family, the Trenches or De la Tranches, of whom the Earl 
of Clancarty is the head, who emigrated fi'om Erance and settled in England 
shortly after the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 



156 RENEWED FLIGET OF HUGUENOTS. 

armed coast-guard ; wHle ships of war cruised at sea to in- 
tercept and search outward -hound vessels. The law was 
strictly enforced against all persons taken in the act of jiight. 
Under the original edict, detected fugitives were to he con- 
demned to the galleys for life, while their denouncers were 
to he rewarded with half their goods. But this punishment 
was not considered sufficiently severe ; and, on the '7th of 
May, 1686, the king issued another edict, proclaiming that 
any captured fugitives, as well as any person found acting as 
their guide, would he condemned to death. 

But even these terrihle penalties were not sufficient to pre- 
vent the flight of the Huguenots. Many of the more distin- 
guished literary and scientific men of France had already es- 
caped into other countries. When the Protestant University 
of Sedan was arbitrarily closed by the king in 1681, Jurieu, 
Professor of Hebrew and Theology, and Bayle, Professor of 
Philosophy, fled into Holland and obtained asylum there. 
The magistrates of Rotterdam expressly founded a new col- 
lege for education, in which the fugitives were both appoint- 
ed to professorships. Huyghens also, the distinguished as- 
tronomer and mathematician, who had been induced by Col- 
bert to settle in Paris, made haste to take refiige in Holland. 
Though not much of a Protestant, and indeed not much of a 
Christian, Huyghens would not be a hypocrite, and he re- 
nounced all honors and emoluments rather than conform to 
an institution and system which he detested. 

Amid the general proscription, a few distinguished excep- 
tions were made by the king, who granted permission to 
several laymen, in return for past public services, to leave the 
kingdom and settle abroad. Among these were Marshal 
Schomberg, one of the first soldiers of France, who had been 
commander-in-chief of its armies, and the Marquis de Ruvig- 
ny, one of her ablest embassadors — whose only crime con- 
sisted in their being Protestants. The gallant admiral Du- 
quesne also, the first sailor of France, was a Huguenot. The 
king sent for him and urged him to abjure his religion. But 



DUQUESNE—THE BANISHED PASTORS. 157 

the old hero, pointing to his gray hair, replied, " For sixty- 
years, sire, have I rendered unto Csesar the things which are 
Caesar's ; suffer me still to render unto God the things which 
are God's." Duquesne was permitted to end his few remain- 
ing days in France, for he was then in his eightieth year; but 
his two sons were allowed to emigrate, and they shortly after 
departed into Holland.* 

The banished pastors were treated with especial severity. 
Fifteen days only had been allowed them to fly beyond the 
frontier, and if they tarried longer in their agonizing leave- 
taking of their flocks they were liable to be sent to the gal- 
leys for life. Yet, with that exquisite malignity which char- 
acterized the acts of the monarch and his abettors, they were 
in some cases refused the necessary permits to pass the fron- 
tier, in order that they might thereby be brought within the 
range of the dreadful penalties proclaimed by the Act of 
Revocation. The pastor Claude — one of the most eloquent 
preachers of his day, who had been one of the ministers of 
the great church of Charenton, was ordered to quit France 
within twenty-four hours, and he set out forthwith, accom- 
panied by one of the king's footmen, who saw him as far as 
Brussels. The other pastors of Paris were allowed two days 
to make theii* preparations for leaving. More time was al- 
lowed to those in the provinces ; but they were permitted to 
carry nothing with them, not even theii* children — all under 
seven years of age being taken from them to be brought up 
in the religion of their persecutors. Even infants at the 

* The eldest son, Henry, Marquis Duquesne, subsequently went to Switzer- 
land to organize a flotilla on Lake Leman for the defense of the country 
against the Duke of Savoy who then threatened it. "Hemy had secretly 
carried oif from Pai-is the heart of his father, whose memory Louis XIV. re- 
fused to honor by a public monument. The body of that great man had been 
refused to his son, who had prepared for it a burial-place in a foreign land. 
He had the following words engraved on the mausoleum he had erected to 
him in the church of Aubonne : This tomb awaits Duquesne' s remains. You, 
who pass by, question the court, the army, the Church, and even Europe, Asia, 
Afnca, and the two oceans ; ash them why a superb mausoleum has been raised 

to the valiant Ruyter, and not to his conqueror Duqvssne ? / see 

that, out of respect /or the Great King, you dare not speak." — ^Weiss — His- 
tory of the French Protestant Refugees, 509. 



158 RENEWED FLIGHT OF HUGUENOTS. 

breast must be given ujd ; and many a mother's heart was 
torn by conflicting feelings — the duty of following a husband 
on the road to banishment, or remaining behind to suckle a 
helpless infant. 

It may be asked, Why rake up these horrors of the past, 
these tortures inflicted upon innocent women and children in 
times long since past and gone ? Simply because they are 
matters of history, which can not be ignored or suppressed. 
They may be horrible to relate, it is true, but they were far 
more horrible to sufler. And, however revolting they may 
now appear, any description of them, no matter how vivid or 
how detailed, must necessarily fall far short of the dreadful 
reality to those who endured them. They are, indeed, histor- 
ical facts, full of significance and meaning, without a knowl- 
edge of which it were impossible to understand the extraor- 
dinary exodus of the French people which shortly followed, 
and which constituted one of the most important historical 
events of the seventeenth century. And, if we mistake not, 
they are equally necessary to an intelligent appreciation of 
the causes which led to the success of the English Revolution 
of 1688 and the events which followed it, as well as of the 
still more recent French Revolution of 1789. 

Wlaen all the banished pastors had fled, those of their 
flocks who still remained steadfast prepared to follow them 
into exile, for they felt it easier to be martyrs than apostates. 
Those who possessed goods and movables made haste to con- 
vert them into money in such a way as to excite the least 
suspicion ; for spies were constantly on the watch, ready to 
denounce intended fugitives to the authorities. Such of 
them as were engaged in trade, commerce, and manufactures 
were surrounded by difficulties ; yet they were prepared to 
dare and risk all rather than abjure their religion. They 
prepared to close their workshops, their tanneries, their pa- 
per-mills, theii' silk manufactories, and the various branches 
of industry which they had built up, and to fly with the 
merest wreck of their fortunes into other countries. The 



GENERAL FLIGHT OF THE HUGUENOTS. 159 

owners of land had still greater difficulties to encounter. 
They were, in a measure, rooted to the soil; and, according 
to the royal edict, if they emigrated without special permis- 
sion, their property was liable to immediate confiscation hy 
the state. Nevertheless, many of these, too, resolved to brave 
all risks and fly. 

When the foil tide of the emigration set in, it was found 
difficult to guard the extensive French frontier so as effectu- 
ally to prevent the escape of the fugitives. The high roads 
as well as the by-ways were regularly patroled day and 
night, and all the bridges leading out of France were strong- 
ly guarded. But the fugitives avoided the frequented routes, 
and crossed the frontier through forests, over trackless wastes, 
or by mountain paths, where no patrols were on the watch, 
and thus they contrived to escape in large numbers into 
Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. They mostly traveled 
by night, not in bands, but in small parties, and often singly. 
When the members of a family prepared to fly, they fixed a 
rendezvous in some town across the nearest frontier ; then, 
after prayer and taking a tender leave of each other, they set 
out separately, and made for the agreed point of meeting, 
usually traveling in different du*ections. 

Many of the ftigitives were of course captured by the 
king's agents. Along so wide a frontier, it was impossible 
always to elude their vigilance. To strike terror into such 
of the remaining Huguenots as might be contemplating their 
escape, the prisoners who were taken were led as a show 
through the principal towns, with heavy chains round theii- 
necks, in some cases weighing over fifty pounds. " Some- 
times," says Benoit, " they were placed in carts with irons on 
their feet, and the chains were made fast to the cart. They 
were forced to make long marches ; and, when they sank un- 
der fatigue, blows compelled them to rise."* After they had 
been thus driven through the chief towns by way of exam- 
ple, the prisoners were sent to the galleys, where there were 
* Elie BBmoiiy-Histoire de VEdit de iVa«ies,v.,p.964. 



160 RENEWED FLIGHT OF HUGUENOTS. 

already more than a thousand by the end of 1686. The gal- 
ley-slaves included men of all conditions — pastors and peas- 
ants ; old men with white hairs and boys of tender years ; 
magistrates, officers, and men of gentle blood, mixed witli 
thieves and murderers;^ and no discrimination whatever was 
made in their classification, or in the barbarity of their treat- 
ment. 

These cruelties were, however, of no avail in checking the 
emigration. The Huguenots continued to fly out of France 
in all directions. The Great Louis, still bent on their " con- 
version," increased his guards along the frontiers. The sol- 
diers were rewarded in proportion to the captures they ef- 
fected. Tlie aid of the frontier peasantry was also mvited, 
and thousands of them joined the troops in guarding the 
highways, the bridges, the ferries, and all the avenues leading 
out of France. False statements were published by authori- 
ty, to the effect that such of the emigrants as had reached 
foreign countries were destitute and starving. It was stated 
that ten thousand of them had died of misery in England, 
and that most of those who survived were imploring permis- 
sion to return to France and abjure.* 

In vain! the emigration continued. Some bought their 
way across the frontier; others fought their way. They 
went in all sorts of disguises — some as peddlers, others as 
soldiers, huntsmen, valets, and beggars. Some, to disarm sus- 
picion, even pretended to sell chaplets and rosaries. The 
Huguenots conducted the emigration on a regular system. 
They had itineraries prepared and secretly distributed, in 
which the safest routes and hiding-places were described in 
detail — a sort of "underground railroad," such as existed 
in the United States before the abolition of slavery there. 
Many escaped through the great forest of Ardennes into 
Luxembourg ; others through the Yosges Mountains into 
Germany ; and others through the passes of the Jura into 
Switzerland. Some were shot by the soldiers and peasant- 
* Weiss — History of the French Protestant Refugees^ p. 76. 



TEE HUGUENOT WOMEN. 161 



ly ; a still greater number were taken prisoners and sent to 
the galleys ; yet many thousands of them nevertheless con- 
trived to make their escape. 

The flight of men was accompanied by that of women, old 
and young; often by mothers with infants in their arms. 
The hearts of the women were especially lacerated by the 
cruelties inflicted on them through theii* affections ; by the 
tearing of their children from them for the purpose of being 
educated in convents; by the quartering of dragoons in their 
dwellings ; and by the various social atrocities which pre- 
ceded as well as followed the Edict of Revocation.* While 
many Protestant heads of families were ready to conform, in 
order to save theii* families from insult and outrage by a law- 
less and dissolute soldiery, the women often refiised to fol- 
low their example, and entreated their husbands to fly from 
the land where such barbarities had become legalized, and 
where this daily war was being carried on against woman- 
hood and childhood — against innocence, morality, religion, 
and virtue. To women of pure feelings, life under sui)h cir- 
cumstances was more intolerable even than death. 

Every where, therefore, were the Huguenot women as well 
as the men found fleeing into exile. They mostly fled in dis- 
guise, often alone, to join their husbands or fathers at the ap- 
pointed rendezvous. Benoit says that they cut off their hair, 
disfigured their faces with dyes, assumed the dress of ped- 
dlers or lackeys, and condescended to the meanest employ- 
ments, for the purpose of disarming suspicion and insuring 

* The frightful craelty of these measures shocked the Roman Catholic 
clergy themselves, and, to their honor be it said, in many districts they refrain- 
ed from putting them in force. On discovering this, Louis XIV., furiously 
zealous for the extirpation of heresy, ordered his minister De Portchartraih 
to address a circular to the bishops of France, charging them with want of 
zeal in carrying his edicts into effect, and calling upon them to require the 
curates of their respective dioceses to enforce them without fail. — Coquekel, 
His'toire des Eglises du Desert^ i., p, 68. The priests who visited the slaves 
at the galleys were horribly shocked at the cruelties practiced on tkem. The 
Abbe' Jean Bion shed tears at the sight of the captives covered with bleeding 
wounds inflicted by the whip, and he coiild not resist the impression : " Their 
blood preached to me," says he in his Relation, " and I felt myself a Protest- 
ant." 

L 



162 RENEWED FLIGHT OF HUG UENO TS. 

their escape.* Young women, in many cases of gentle birth, 
who under other circumstances would have shrunk from the 
idea of walking a few miles from home, prepared to set out 
upon a journey on foot of some hundreds of miles, through 
woods, by unfrequented paths, across mountain ranges, brav- 
ing all dangers so that they might but escape, though it were 
with their bare lives, from the soil of France. Jean Mar- 
teilhe, of Bergerac, describes a remarkable incident of this 
kind-t He had himself been taken prisoner in his attempt to 
escape across the French frontier near Marienbourg, and was 
lodged in the jail at Tournay to wait his trial. While lying 
there, five other Huguenot fugitives, who had been captured 
by the dragoons, were ushered into his cell. Three of these 
he at once recognized, through their disguise, as gentlemen 
of Bergerac ; but the other two he failed to recognize. They 
eventually proved to be two young ladies, Mesdemoiselles 
Madras and Conceil of Bergerac, disguised as boys, who had 
set out, though it was winter, to make their escape from 
France through the forest of Ardennes. They had traveled 

* Women of quality, even sixty and seventy years of age, who had, so to. 
spealv, never placed a foot upon the ground except to cross their apartments 
or stroll in an avenue, traveled a hundred leagues to some village which had 
been indicated by a guide. Girls of fifteen, of eveiy rank, exposed them- 
selves to the same hazard. They drew wheelbaiTows, they bore manure, 
panniers, and other burdens. They disfigured their faces with dyes to em- 
brown their complexion, with ointments or juices that bhstered their skins 
and gave them a wrinkled aspect. Women and girls were seen to counterfeit 
sickness, dumbness, and even insanity. Some went disguised as men ; and 
some, too dehcate to pass as grown men, donned the dress of lackeys, and 
followed on foot, through the mud, a guide on horseback, who assumed the 
character of a man of importance. Many of these females reached Rotter- 
dam in their boi-rowed ganments, and hastening to the foot of the pulpit, be- 
fore they had time to assume a more decent garb, published their repentance 
of their compulsory signature. — Ehk Biinoit — Histoire de VEdit de Nantes, 
v., 554, 953. 

t The nan-ative of Jean Marteilhe, entitled M^moires d'un Protestant con- 
damm^ aux Galeres de France pour cause de Religion, dcrits par lui meme, 
gives a most interesting account of the adventures and sufferings of those con- 
demned to the gaUeys because of their Protestantism. The book originally 
appeared at Rotterdam in 1755, and was translated into English by OKver 
Goldsmith, under the fictitious name of "J. WiUington," in the following 
year. Goldsmith receiving twenty guineas for making the translation. It has 
since been republished by the Religious Tract Society, under the title of Atito- 
biography of a French Protestant oondemned to the Galleys for the sake of his 
Religion, and is weU worthy of perusal. 



JEAN MABTEILHE. 168 

thirty leagues on foot, under dripping trees, along iDroken 
roads, and by almost trackless paths, enduring cold, hunger, 
and privations " with a firmness and constancy," says Mar- 
teiihe, " extraordinary for persons brought up in refinement, 
and who, previous to this expedition, would not have been 
able to walk a league." They were, however, captured and 
put in jail; and when they recognized in their fellow-prison- 
ers other Huguenot fugitives from Bergerac, they were so 
happy that they wept for joy. Marteilhe strongly urged 
that the jailer should be informed of their sex, to which the 
young ladies assented, when they were removed to a sepa- 
rate cell. They were afterward tried, and condemned to be 
immured in the Convent of the Repentants at Paris, where 
they wept out the rest of their lives and died. 

Marteilhe himself refused all the tempting offers, as well as 
the dreadful threats, made to induce him to abjure his relig- 
ion, and he was condemned to be sent to the galleys at sev- 
enteen years of age. Marched from jail to jail, and from 
town to town, loaded with chains like his fellow-prisoners, he 
was first placed in the galleys at Dunkirk, where he endured 
the most horrible hardships* during twelve years; after 
which, on the surrender of Dunkirk to the English, he was 
marched, with twenty -two other Protestant galley-slaves, 
still loaded with chains, through Paris and the other princi- 
pal towns, to Marseilles, to serve out the remainder of his 
sentence. There were other galley-slaves of even more ten- 
der years than Marteilhe. Andrew Bosquet was only six- 
teen, and he remained at the galleys twenty -six years. 
Francis Bouny and Matthew Morel were but fifteen; and 
only a few years since. Admiral Baudin, maritime prefect at 
Toulon, in turning over the ancient records of his depart- 
ment, discovered the register of a child who had been sent 

* What life at the galleys was may be learned from Marteilhe's own narra- 
tive above cited, as well as from a highly interesting account of the Protest- 
ants sent to the galleys, by Athanase Coquerel fils, entitled Les Formats pour 
la Foi (Galley-slaves for the Faith), recently published .at Paris by Le'vy 
Brothers. 



164 RENEWED FLIGHT OF HUGUENOTS. 

to the galleys at twelve years of age " for having accompa- 
nied his father and mother to the preaching !"* 

On the other hand, age did not protect those found guilty 
of adhering to their faith. David de Caumont, baron of Mont- 
belon, was seventy years old when sent to the galleys. An- 
toine Astruc was of the same age when condemned; and An- 
toine Morlier seventy-one. Nor did distinction in learning 
protect the hapless Protestant; for the celebrated counselor 
of the king, Louis de Marolles, was sent to the galleys with 
the rest. At first, out of regard for his eminence, the jailer 
chained him by only one foot; but next day, by the express 
orders of Louis the Great, a heavy chain was fixed around his 
neck It was while chained with all sorts of malefactors 
that Marolles compiled his Discourse on Frovidence^ which 
was afterward published and translated into English. Ma- 
rolles was also a profound mathematician— the author of one 
of the best treatises on algebra ; and, while chained in his 
dungeon, he. proposed a problem to the mathematicians of 
Paris which was afterward inserted in the works of Ozanam. 

Another distinguished galley-slave was John Huber, father 
of three illustrious sons — Huber of the Birds, Btuber of the 
Ants, and Huber of the Bees ! The following touching inci- 
dent is fi-om the elder Huber's journal: "We arrived one 
night at a little town, chained, my wife and my children, with 
fourteen galley-slaves. The priests came to us, offering free- 
dom on condition that we abjured. We had agreed to pre- 
serve a profound silence. After them came the women and 
children of the place, who covered us with mud. I made 
my little party fall on their knees, and we put up this pray- 
er, in which all the fugitives joined : ' Gracious God, who 
seest the' wrongs to which we are hourly exposed, give us 
strength to support them, and to forgive in charity those 
who wrong us. Strengthen us from good even unto better.' 
They had expected to hear complaints and outcries: our 
words astonished them. We finished our little act of wor- 
* Les Forgats pour ia Foi, p. 91. 



COUNT DE MARANCE'. 165 

ship by singing the hundred and sixteenth psalm. At this, 
the -women began to weep._ They washed off the mud with 
which our children's faces had been covered, and they sought 
permission to have us lodged in a barn separate from the 
other galley-slaves, which was done." 

To return to the fugitives who evaded the dragoons, po- 
lice, and coast-guard, and succeeded in making their escape 
from France. Many of them fled by sea, for it was difficult 
to close that great highway, or to guard the coast so strictly 
as to preclude the escape of those who dared to. trust them- 
selves upon it. Some of the fugitives from inland places, 
who had never seen the sea in their lives before, were so ap- 
palled at sight of the wide and stormy waste of waters, and 
so agonized by the thought of tearing themselves from their 
native land forever, that their hearts sank within them, and 
they died in sheer despair, without being able to accomplish 
their pui'pose. Others, stronger and more courageous, pre- 
pared to brave all risks ; and on the first opportunity that 
offered, they put out to sea, from all parts of the coast, in 
open boats, in shallops, in fishing-smacks, and in trading ships, 
eager to escape from France in any thing that would float. 

"The Protestants of the sea-board," says "Weiss, "got away in Trench, 
English, and Dutch merchant vessels, whose masters hid them imder bales 
of goods and heaps of coals, and in empty casks, where they had only the 
bung-hole to breathe thi'ough. There they remained, crowded one upon 
another, until the ship sailed. Fear of discovery and of the galleys gave 
them com-age to suffer. Persons brought up in every luxury, pregnant wom- 
en, old men, invalids, and children, vied with each other in constancy to es- 
cape from theii- persecutors, often risking themselves in open boats upon voy- 
ages the thought of which would in ordinary times have made them shudder. 
A Norman gentleman, Count de Marance, passed the Channel, in the depth 
of winter, with forty persons, among whom were several pregnant women, in 
a vessel of seven tons' burden. Overtaken by a storm, he remained long at 
sea, without provisions or hope of succor, dying of hunger; he, the countess, 
and all the passengers reduced, for sole sustenance, to a Httle melted snow, with 
wliich they appeased their burning thirst, and moistened the parched lips of 
then- weeping children, until they landed, half dead, upon England's shores."* 

* Weiss — History of the French Protestant Refugees, p. 79, 80. 



166 RENEWED FLIGHT OF HUGUENOTS. 

The Lord of Castelfranc, near Roclielle, was less fortunate 
than the Count de Marance. He was captured at sea, in an 
open boat, while attempting to escape to England with his 
wife and family. Three of his sons and three of his daugh- 
ters thus taken were sent to the Caribbee Islands as slaves. 
His three other daughters were detained in France in strict 
confinement ; and after much sufiering, during which they 
continued steadfast to their faith, they were at length per- 
mitted to depart for Geneva. The father contrived in some 
way afterward to escape from France and reach London, 
where he lived for many years in Bunhill Fields. The six 
slaves in the Caribbee Islands were eventually liberated by 
the crew of an English vessel, and brought to London. The 
three young men entered the English army under William 
HI. Two of them were killed in battle in Flanders, and the 
third retii-ed on half pay, settling at Portarlington in Ireland, 
where he died.* 

Among the many who escaped in empty casks may be 
mentioned the Misses Raboteau, of Pont-Gibaud, near Ro- 
chelle. Their relatives had become "new Catholics," by 
which name the converts from Protestantism, often pretend- 
ed, were called ; but the two young ladies refused to be con- 
verted, and they waited an opportunity for making their es- 
cape from France. Tlie means were at length provided by 
an exiled relative, John Charles Raboteau, who had emigra- 
ted long before, and settled as a wine-merchant in Dublin. He 
carried on a brisk trade with the French wine-growers, and 
occasionally sailed in his own ship to Rochelle, where he be- 
came the temporary guest of his relatives. At one of his 
visits the two young ladies confided to him that they had 
been sentenced to adopt the alternative of either marrying 
two Roman Catholic gentlemen selected for their husbands, 

* Agnew — Protestant Exiles from France [printed for private circulation], 
London, 1866. A work containing a large amount of cui-ious and interesting 
information relative to the descendants of the French Protestant refugees in 
England and Ireland. "We are glad to learn that the work is about to ap- 
pear in a generally accessible foim. 



FUGITIVE GENTLEWOMEN. 167 

or being sliut up in a convent for life. There was one other 
alternative — flight — upon which they resolved, if their uncle 
would assist them. He at once assented, and made arrange- 
ments for then- escape. Two horses were obtained, on which 
they rode by night to Rochelle, where lodgings had been 
taken for them at the house of a widow. There was still, 
however, the greater difficulty to be overcome of getting the 
delicate freight put on board. Raboteau had been accus- 
tomed to take to Ireland, as part of his cargo, several large 
casks of French apples, and in two of such casks the young 
ladies were carried on board of his ship. They reached Dub- 
lin in safety, where they settled and married, and their de- 
scendants still survive.* 

The Rev. Philip Skelton mentions the case of a French 
gentlewoman brought from Bordeaux to Portsmouth by a 
sea-captain of his acquaintance, which shows the agonies of 
mind which must have been endured by these noble women 
before they could brhig themselves to fly alone across the sea 
to England for refuge. This lady had sold all the property 
she could convert into money, with which she purchased 
jewels, as being the easiest to carry. She contrived to get 
on board of the Englishman's ship by night, bringing with 
her the little casket of jewels — her sole fortune. She re- 
mained in a state of the greatest fear and anxiety tUl the 
ship was under sail. But no sooner did she find herself fairly 
out at sea and the land disappearing in the distance, than she 
breathed freely, and began to give way to her feeliugs of joy 
and gratitude. This increased in proj)ortion as she neared 
England, though about to land there an exile, a solitary wom- 
an, and a foreigner ; and no sooner did she reach the shore 
than she threw herself down and passionately kissed the 

* One of them married Alderman Peter Barre', whose son was the famous 
Isaac Barr^, M.P. and Pm'y Councilor; the other married Mr. Stephen 
j^Chaigneau, descended from an ancient family in the Charente, where their 
estate of LabeEoniere was confiscated and sold as belonging to " Eeligionaires 
fugitifs du royaume pour cause de la religion." Severrd of their descendants 
have filled important offices in the state, army, and Church of England and 
Ireland. 



168 RENEWED FLIGHT OF HUGUENOTS. 

ground, exclaiming, " Have I at last attained my wishes ? 
Yes, 'gracious God! I thank thee for this deliverance from a 
tyranny exercised over my conscience, and for placing me 
where Thou alone art to reign over it by Thy word, till I 
shall finally lay down my head upon this beloved earth !"* 

All the measures adopted by the French king to prevent 
the escape of fugitives by sea proved as futile as those em- 
ployed to prevent their escape by land. The coast-guard 
was increased, and more tempting rewards were offered for 
the capture of the flying Protestants. The royal cruisers 
were set to watch every harbor and inlet to prevent any ves- 
sel setting sail without a most rigid search of the cargo for 
concealed Huguenots. When it became known that many 
had escaped in empty casks, provision was made to meet the 
case; and the royal order was issued that, before any ship 
was allowed to sail for a foreign port, the hold should be fu- 
migated with deadly gas, so that any hidden Huguenot who 
could not be detected might thus be suffocated.f But this 
expedient was only of a piece with the refined and malignant 
cruelty of the Great Louis, and it failed hke the rest, for the 
Huguenots still continued to make their escape. 

It can never be known, with any thing approaching to ac- 
curacy, how many persons fled from France in the great ex- 
odus. Vauban, the military engineer, writmg only a few 
vears after the Revocation, said that "France had lost a 
hundred thousand inhabitants, sixty millions of money, nine 
thousand sailors, twelve thousand tried soldiers, six hundred 
officers, and its most flourishing manufactures." But the em- 
igration was not then by any means at its height, and for 
many years after the Huguenots continued to swarm out of 
France, and join their exiled compatriots in other lands. 

* Philip Skelton pRector of Pintona, county Tyrone] — Compassion for 
the French Protestant Refugees recommended, 1751. ^ 

t " On se servait d'une composition qui, lorsq'on y mettait le feu, ddvellop- 
pait une odeur mortelle dans tous les recoins du navire, de sorte que, en la 
respirant, ceux qui s'etaient caches trouvaient une mort certaine!" — Royer 
— Histoire de h Colonic Frangaise en Prusse, p. 153. 



THE LOSS TO FRANCE. 169 

Sismondi computed tlie total number of emigrants at from 
three to four hundred thousand ; and he was farther of opin- 
ion that an equal number perished in prison, on the scaffold, 
at the galleys, and in their attempts to escape.* 

The emigration gave a death-blow to several great branch- 
es of French industry. Hundreds of manufactories were 
closed, whole villages were depopulated, many large towns 
half deserted, and a large extent of land went altogether out 
of cultivation. The skilled Dutch cloth-workers, whom Col- 
bert had induced to settle at Abbeville, emigrated in a body, 
and the manufacture was extinguished. At Tours, where 
some 40,000 persons had been employed in the silk manufac- 
ture, the number fell to little more than 4000 ; and instead 
of 8000 looms at work, there remained only about 100 ; while 
of 800 mills, ^30 were closed. Of the 400 tanneries which 
had before enriched Lorraine, "Weiss says there remained but 
54 in 1698. The population of JSTantes, one of the most pros- 
perous cities of France, was reduced from 80,000 to less than 
one half; and a blow was struck at its prosperity from which 
it has not to this day recovered. 

The Revocation proved almost as fatal to the prosperity 
of Lyons as it did to that of Tours and !N"antes. That city 
had originally been indebted for its silk manufactures to the 
civil and religious wars of Sicily, Italy, and Spain, which oc- 
casioned numerous refugees from those countries to settle 
there and carry on their trade. And now, the same perse- 
cutions which had made the prosperity of Lyons threatened 
to prove its ruin. Of about 12,000 artisans employed in the 
silk manufacture of Lyons, about 9000 fled into Switzerland 
and other countries. The industry of the place was for a 
time completely prostrated. More than a hundred years 
passed before it was restored to its former prosperity, and 
then only to suffer another equally staggering blow from the 

* Boulainvillers states that, under the intendancy of Lamoignon de Baville, 
a hundred thousand persons were destroyed by premature death in the single 
province of Languedoc, and that one tenth of them perished hy fire, strangu- 
lation, or on the wheel. — ^De Felice, p. 340. 



170 RENEWED FLIGHT OF HUGUENOTS. 

violence and outrage wMcli accompanied the outbreak of the 
French Revolution. 

Without pursuing the subject of the sufferings of the Hu- 
guenots who remained in France, of whom there remained 
more than a million, notwithstanding the frightful persecu- 
tions to which they continued to be subjected,* let us now 
follow the fugitives into the countries in which they found a 
refuge, and observe the important influence which they exer- 
cised, not only on their industrial prosperity, but also on 
their political history. 

* Although Protestantism seemed to be utterly stamped out in Erance dur- 
ing the centuiy which followed the Eevocation of the Edict of Nantes — al- 
though its ministers were banished, its chm-ches and schools suppressed, and 
it was placed entirely beyond the pale of the law — it nevertheless continued 
to have an active existence. Many of the banished ministers from time to 
time returned secretly to minister to their flocks, and were seized and suiFer- 
ed death in consequence — as many as twenty-nine Protestant pastors having 
been hanged between 1684 and 1762. During the same period, thousands of 
their folloM'ers were sent to the galleys, and died there. The names of 1546 
of these illustrious galley-slaves are given in Forgats pour la ,Foi, but the 
gi-eater number have been long forgotten on earth. The principal offense for 
which they were sent to the galleys was attending the Protestant meetings 
which continued to be held ; for the Protestants, after the Revocation, consti- 
tuted a sort of underground chm-ch, regulai-ly organized, though its meetings 
were held by night, in forests, in caves among the hills, or in unsuspected 
places even in the heait of large towns and cities, in all parts of France. The 
"Chm-ches of the Desert," as they were called, continued to exist doAvn to 
the period of the French Revolution, when Protestantism in France was 
again allowed openly to show itself, A most interesting account of the Prot- 
estant Church in France during this "underground" period is to be found in 
Charles Coquerel's Histoire des Eglises du D€seTt, in 2 vols., Paris, 1841. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE HtJGUENOTS AND THE ENGLISH EEVOLTJTION OF 1688. 

The flight of tlie French Protestants exercised a highly- 
important influence on European politics. Among its other 
efiects, it contributed to establish religious and political free- 
dom in Switzerland, and to render it in a measure the Pat- 
mos of Europe ; it strengthened the foundations of liberty in 
the then comparatively insignificant electorate of Branden- 
burg, which has since become" developed into the great mon- 
archy of Prussia ; it fostered the strength and increased the 
political power and commercial wealth of the States of Hol- 
land; and it materially contributed to the success of the 
English Revolution of 1688, and to the establishment of the 
British Constitution on its present basis. 

Long before the Revocation of the Edict of IsTantes, the 
persecutions of the French Protestants had excited the gen- 
eral commiseration of Europe, and Switzerland and the north- 
em nations vied with each other in extending to them their 
sympathy and their help. The principal seats of Protestant- 
ism being in Languedoc, Dauphiny, and the southwest'ern 
provinces of France, the first emigrants readily passed across 
the frontier of the Jura and Savoy into Switzerland, mostly 
making for the asylum of Geneva. That city had been in a 
measure created by the organization of Calvin, who had 
striven to make it a sort of Christian Sparta, and in a great 
degree succeeded. Under his regimen the pjace had become 
entirely changed. It had already emancipated itself fi'om 
the authority of the Duke of Savoy, and established alliances 
with adjoining cantons for the purpose of insuring its inde- 
pendence, when Calvin undertook the administration of its 



172 TEE HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 

ecclesiastical policy, to which the civil power shortly hecame 
entirely subordinate. There can be no doubt as to the Vigor 
as well as the severity of Calvin's rule ; but Geneva was sur- 
rounded by ferocious enemies, and had to struggle for very 
life. The French historian Mignet has in a few words de- 
scribed the rapid progress made by this remarkable commu- 
nity: 

"In less than half a centmy the face of Geneva had become entu*ely 
changed. It passed through three consecutive revolutions. The first deliv- 
ered it from the Duke of Savoy, who lost his delegated authority in the at- 
tempt to convert it into an absolute sovereignty. The second introduced into 
Geneva the Eeformed worship, by which the sovereignty of the bishop was 
destroyed. The third constituted the Protestant administration of Geneva, 
and the subordination to it of the civil power. The first of these revolutions 
gave Geneva its independence of the ducal power ; the second, its moral re- 
generation and political sovereignty : the thnd, its greatness. These three 
revolutions did not only follow each other; they were linked together. 
S-wdtzerland was bent on liberty, the human mind on emancipation. The lib- 
erty of Switzerland made tlie independence of Geneva, the emancipation of 
the human mind made its reformation. These changes were not accomplish- 
ed without difficulties nor without Avars. But if they troubled the peace of 
tlie city, if they agitated the people's hearts, if they divided families, if they 
occasioned imprisonments, if they caused blood to be shed in the streets, they 
tempered characters, they awoke minds, they purified morals, they foi-med 
citizens and men, and Geneva issued transformed from the trials through 
which it passed. It had been subject, and it had grown independent : it had 
been ignorant, and it had become one of the lights of Em-ope ; it had been a 
little town, and it was now a capital of the great Cause. Its science, its 
constitution, its greatness, were the work of Trance, through its exiles of the 
sixteenth century, who, unable to realize their ideas in their own country, had 
carried them into Switzerland, whose hospitality they repaid by giving them 
a new worship, and the spiritual government of many peoples."* 



* Mignet — Memoires Historiques, Paris, 1854, p. 385-7. In one of his 
letters to the Duke of Savoy in 1594, Francis de Sales m-ged the speedy sup- 
pression of Geneva as the capital of heresy and Calvinism. "All the here- 
tics," said he, "respect Geneva as the asylum of their reUgion: this veiy 
year a person came out of Languedoc to visit it as a Catholic might visit 
Rome. There is not a city in Europe which oifers more facilities for the en- 
couragement of heresy, for it is the gate of France, of Italy, and Germany, so 
that one finds there people of all nations — ^Italians, French, Germans, Poles, 
Spaniards, Enghsh, and of countries still more remote. Besides, every one 
knows the great number of ministers bred there. Last year it furnished 



REFUGEES IN SWITZERLAND. 17G 

Geneva having tlius been established as a great Protest- 
ant asylum and strong-hold, mainly through the labors of 
Frenchmen — Calvin, Parel, De Beza, D'Aubigny, and many 
more — the fugitive Protestants naturally directed their steps 
thither in the first place. In 1685, hundreds of them were 
arriving in Geneva daily; but as the place was already 
crowded, and the accommodation it provided was but limit- 
ed, the greater number of the new arrivals traveled onward 
into the interior cantons. Two years later, the refugees 
were arriving in thousands, mostly from Dauphiny and 
Lyons, the greater number of them being Protestant arti- 
sans. As the persecution began to rage in Gex, close upon 
the Swiss frontier, it seemed as if the whole population were 
flying. Geneva became so crowded with fugitives that they 
had to camp out in the public squares. 

The stream of emigrants was not less considerable at Basle, 
Zurich, Berne, and Lausanne. The embassador of Louis XIV. 
wrote to his royal master, " The fugitives continue to crowd 
to Zurich ; I met a number of them on the road from Basle 
to Soleure." A month later he informed his court that all 
the roads were full of French subjects making for Berne and 
Zurich ; and a third dispatch informed Louis that carts lad- 
en with fugitives were daily passing through the streets of 
Basle. As the fugitives were mostly destitute, the Protest- 
ant cantons provided a fund* to facilitate the transit of those 

twenty to France; even England obtains ministers from Geneva. What 
shall I say of its magnificent printing establishments, by means of which the 
city, floods the world with its wicked books, and even goes the length of dis- 
tributing them at the public expense ? . . . All the entei-prises undertaken 
against the Holy See and the Catholic princes have their beginning at Geneva. 
No city in Europe receives more apostates of all grades, secular and regular. 
From thence I conclude that Geneva being destroyed would necessarily lead 
to the dissipation of heresy." — Vie de Ste. Francois de Sales, par son ne- 
veu ; Lyons, 1633, p. 120-1. • 

* The city of Geneva was superbly bountiful. In 1685, the citizens con- 
tributed 88,161 florins to the Protestant refugee fund. As the emigration 
increased, so did their bounty, until, in 1707, they contributed as much as 
234,672 florins toward the expenses of the emigration. "Within a period 
of forty years," says Graverol, in his History/. of the City o/Nismes (London, 
1703), " Geneva furnished ofBcial contiibutions toward the assistance of the 
refugees of the Edict of Nantes amounting to not less than 5,143,266 florins." 



in THE HUG UENOTS ABROAD. 

whom the country was unable to maintain. And thus 15,591 
persons were forwarded to Germany at the expense of the 
League. 

Louis XL V. beheld with vexation the departure of so large 
a portion of his subjects, who preferred flight with destitu- 
tion rather than French citizenship with " conversion ;" and 
he determined to interpose with a strong hand, so as, if possi- 
ble, to prevent their farther emigration. . Accordingly, when 
the people of Gex went flying into Geneva in crowds, Louis 
called upon the magistrates at once to expel them. The re- 
publican city was then comparatively small and unarmed, 
and unable to resist the will of a monarch so powerful and 
with such long arms as Louis. The magistrates, therefore, 
made a show of compliance with his orders, and directed the 
expulsion of the fugitives by sound of trumpet. The exiles 
left by the French gate in a long and sad procession ; but at 
midnight the citizens went forth and led them round the 
walls, bringing them into Geneva again by the Swiss gate. 
On this proceeding being reported to him, Louis vowed ven- 
geance upon Geneva for thus trifling with his express orders, 
and giving refuge to his contumacious subjects. But Berne 
and Zurich having hastened to proffer their support to Gene- 
va, the French king's threats remained unexecuted. The ref- 
ugees, accordingly, remained in Switzerland, and settled in 
the various Protestant cantons, where they founded many 
important branches of industry, which continue to flourish to 
this day. 

The Protestant refugees received a like cordial welcome 

in the provinces of North Germany, where they succeeded in 

establishing many important and highly flourishing colonies. 

The province of Brandenburg, which formed the nucleus of 

modern Prussia, had been devastated and almost ruined by 

the Thirty Years' War. Its trade and manufactures were de- 

The sums expended by the cantons of Beme and Vaud during the same pe- 
riod exceeded 4,000,000 florins. This expenditm-e was altogether exchisive 
of the individual contributions and private hospitality of the Swiss people, 
which were alike liberal and bountiful. 



REFUGEES IN PR USSIA. 175 

stroyed, and much of its soil lay uncultivated. The elector 
Frederick William was desii'ous of restoring its population ; 
and, with that view, he sought to attract into it men of skill 
and industry from all quarters. The Protestants whom the 
King of France was driving out of his kingdom were pre- 
cisely the men whom the elector desired for subjects, and he 
sent repeated invitations to the persecuted Huguenots to set- 
tle in Brandenburg, with the promise of liberty of worship, 
protection, and hospitality. As early as 1661, numerous ref- 
ugees embraced his offer and settled in Berlin, where they 
prospered, increased, and eventually founded a flourishing 
French church. 

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes furnished the 
elector with an opportunity for renewing his invitation with 
greater effect than before ; and the promulgation of the 
Edict of Paris was almost immediately followed by the pro- 
mulgation of the Edict of Potsdam. By the latter edict, 
men of the Keformed religion, driven out of France for con- 
science' sake, were offered a free and safe retreat through all 
the dominions of the elector, and promised rights, franchises, 
and other advantages on their settlement in Brandenburg, 
" in order to relieve them, and in some sort to make amends 
for the calamities with which Providence has thought fit to 
visit so considerable a part of His Church."* . Facilities were 
provided to enable the emigrants from France to reach the 
Prussian states. Those from the southern and eastern prov- 
inces of France were directed to make for the Rhine, and 
thence to find their way by boats to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 
or to Cleves, where the Prussian authorities awaited them 
with subsidies and the means of traveling eastward. Free 
shipping was also provided for them at Amsterdam, from 
whence they were to proceed to Hamburg, where the Prus- 
sian resident was directed to assist them in reaching their 
intended destinations. 

These measures shortly had the effect of attracting large 

* Weiss — History of the French Protestant Refugees, p. 100. 



176 THE HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 

numbers of Huguenots into the northern provinces of Ger- 
many. The city of Frankfort became crowded with those 
arriving from the eastern provinces of France. The fugi- 
tives were every where made welcome, taken by the hand, 
succored and helped. The elector assisted them with money 
out of his own private means. " I will sell my plate," he 
said, " rather than they should lack assistance." 

On arriving in Brandenburg, the emigrants proceeded to 
establish their colonies throughout the electorate. Nearly 
every large town in Prussia had its French church, and one 
or more French pastors. The celebrated Ancillon was pas- 
tor of the church at Berlin; and many of the Protestant gen- 
try resorted thither, attracted by his reputation. The Hu- 
guenot immigration into Prussia consisted of soldiers, gentle- 
men, men of letters and artists, traders, manufacturers, and 
laborers. " All received assistance," says Weiss, " in money, 
employments, and privileges ; and they contributed, in their 
turn, in a proportion very superior to their number, to the 
greatness of their adopted country."* 

Numerous other bodieS^ of the refugees settled in the 
smaller states of Germany, in Denmark, m Sweden, and even 
in Russia. A considerable body of them crossed the Atlantic 
and settled in the United States of America ; others, led by 
a nephew of Admiral Duquesne, emigrated to the Cape of 
Good Hope ;f while a colony settled as remote from France 

* The personal history and particulai's of the refugees who settled in Prus- 
sia are given at full length in the work published at BerUn, in vols. 8vo, by 
Messrs. Erman and Reclam, entitled Memoires pour servir a VHistoire des 
Refugies Frangois dans les Etats du Roi. 

t According to Weiss (book v., chap, v.), there are now in Cape Colony 
some 4000 descendants of Huguenot refugees, residing in French VaUey. In 
1739 the Dutch government proscribed the French language, and their lan- 
guage is therefore now Dutch ; but they continue to be known by their sm- 
names (such as Cocher, Dutoit, Malherbe, Retif ), by their personal appear- 
ance, and by then- religious habits. On each parlor table is one of those great 
folio Bibles which the French Protestants were wont to hand down from 
father to son, and in which the dates of birth and the names of all the mem- 
bers of the family are invariably inscribed. Clement Marot's Psalms and 
rehgious books are often to be found among them. Night and morning tlie 
members of each family assemble for prayer and the reading of the Bible. 
Every Sunday at sumise the farmers set out in their rustic vehicles, covered 



THE ASYLUM IN HOLLAND. 177 

as Surinam, in Dutch Guiana. But Holland and England 
constituted tlie principal asylums of tlie exiled Huguenots — 
Holland in the first instance, and England in the next ; many 
of them passing from the one country to the other in the 
course of the great political movements which followed close 
upon the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 

Holland had long been a refuge for the persecuted Prot- 
estants of Europe. During the religious troubles of the six- 
teenth century, exiles fled to it fi-om all quarters-^from Ger- 
many, Flanders, France, and England. Duiing the reign of 
Queen Mary thirty thousand English Protestants fled thither, 
who for the most part returned to England on the accession 
of Elizabeth. There were colonies of foreign exiles settled 
in nearly all the United Provinces — of Germans in Friesland 
and Guelderland, and of Walloons in Amsterdam, Haerlem, 
Leyden, Delft, and other towns in North and South Holland. 
And now these refugees were joined by a still greater influx 
of persecuted Protestants from all parts of France. Bayle 
designated Holland "the great ark of the iu'gitives." It be- 
came the chief European centre of free thought, free religion, 
and free industry. A healthy spirit of liberty pervaded it, 
which awakened and cultivated the best activities and ener- 
gies of its people. 

The ablest minds of France, proscribed by Louis XF^., 
took refuge in the Low Countries, where they taught from 
professors' chairs, preached from pulpits, and spoke to all Eu- 
rope through the medium of the printing-press. Descartes, 
driven from France, betook himself to Holland, where he 
spent twenty years,* and published his piincipal philosoph- 
ical works. It was the retreat of Bayle, Huyghens, Jurieu, 

with hides or with coarse cloth, to attend divine service, and at night they 
return to their peaceful homes. The news of the world takes a long time to 
reach them. In 1S28, when evangelical missionaries told them that religious 
toleration had existed in Prance for forty yeai-s, the old men shed tears, and 
long refused to beUeve that their brethren could be so favorably treated in a 
countn'- from which their ancestors had been so cruelly expelled. 

* He died in 1G50 at Stockholm, whither he had proceeded and settled on 
the express invitation of Christina, queen of Sweden. 

M 



178 THE HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 

and many more of the best men of France, who there uttered 
and printed freely what they could do nowhere else. Amonc: 
the most stirring hooks which emanated from the French 
press in Holland were those of Jurieu — ^formerly professor of 
theology and Hebrew in the University of Sedan — who now 
sought to rouse the indignation of Europe against the tyran- 
ny of Louis XIY. His writings were not permitted to pass 
into France, where all works hostile to the king and the Jesu- 
its were seized and burnt ; but they spread over Northern 
Europe, and fanned the general indignation into a fiercer 
flame. 

Among the celebrated French Protestant divines who took 
refuge in Holland were Claude, Basnage, Martin, Benoit, and 
Saurin. Academies were expressly established at Leyden, 
Eotterdam, and Utrecht, in which the more distinguished of 
the banished ministers were appointed to professors' chairs, 
while others were distributed throughout the principal towns 
and placed in charge of Protestant churches. A fund was 
raised by voluntary subscription for. the relief of the fugi- 
tives, to which all parties cheerfully and liberally contrib- 
uted — not only Lutherans and Calvinists, but Jews, and even 
Roman Catholics. 

The public, as well as the ^private hospitality of Holland 
toward the fugitives was indeed splendid. The magistrates 
of Amsterdam not only freely conferred on them the rights 
of citizenship, with liberty to exercise their respective call- 
ings, but granted them exemption from local taxes for three 
years. The States of Holland and the province of Friesland 
granted them similar privileges, with an exemption from all 
imposts for a period of twelvd" years. Every encouragement 
was given to the immigration. Not a town but was ready 
to welcome and help the destitute foreigners. The people 
received them into their houses as guests, and when the pri- 
vate dwellings were filled, public establishments were opened 
for their accommodation. All this was not enough. The 
Dutch, hearing of the sufferings of the poor exiles in Switzer- 



WILLIAM OF ORANGE, 179 

land, sent invitations to tliem to come into Hollandj where 
they held out that there was room for all. 

The result was an immense increase of the emigration jGrom 
France into Holland of men of all ranks — artisans, cloth-mak- 
ers, sUk-weavers, glass-makers, printers, and manufacturers. 
They were distributed, on their arrival, throughout the vari- 
ous towns and cities, where they settled to the pursuit of 
their respective callings, and in course of a short time they 
more than repaid, by the exercise of their industry and then- 
skill, the splendid hospitality of their benefactors. 

Another important feature of the immigration into Holland 
remains to be mentioned. This was the influx of a large 
number of the best sailors of France, from the coasts of Gui- 
enne, Sahitonge, La Rochelle, Poitou, and iNTormandy, togeth- 
er with a still larger number of veteran officers and soldiers 
of the French army. This accession of refugees had the effect 
of greatly addiag to the strength both of the Dutch navy and 
army, and, as we shall hereafter find, exercised a most im- 
portant influence on the political history both of Holland and 
England. 

Louis XIV. endeavored to check the emigration of his sub- 
jects into Holland, as he had tried to stop their flight into 
Switzerland and England, but in vain. His envoy expostu- 
lated against their reception by the States ; and the States 
reiterated their proclamations of privileges to the refugees, 
it came to be feared that Louis would declare war against 
Holland ; but the Prince of Orange had once before arrested 
the progress of Louis in his invasion of the provinces.in 1672, 
and he longed for nothing so much as for another encounter 
with the French tyrant. 

William, prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, 
hated France as his grandfather had hated Spain. Under an 
appearance of physical weakness and phlegmatic indifference 
he concealed an ardent mind and an indomitable will'. He was 
cool and taciturn, yet full of courage and even daring. He 
was one of those rare men who never know despair. Wlien 



180 THE HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 

the great French- army of 100,000 men, under Conde and Tu- 
renne, swept over Flanders in 1672, capturing city after city, 
and approached Amsterdam, the inhabitants became filled 
with dread. De Witt proposed submission ; but William, 
then only twenty -two years of age, urged resistance, and his 
view was supported by the people. He declared that he 
would die in the last ditch rather than see the ruin of his 
country, and, true to his word, he ordered the dikes to l^e cut 
and the country laid under water. The independence of Hol- 
land was thus saved, but at a frightful cost ; and William 
never forgot, perhaps never forgave, the injury which Louis 
thereby caused him to infiict upon Holland. 

William had another and more personal cause of quarrel 
with Louis. The prince took his title from the small but in- 
dependent principality of Orange, situated in the southeast 
of France, a little to the north of Avignon. Though Orange 
was a fief of the imperial and not of the French crown, Louis, 
disregarding public law, overran it, dismantled the fortifica- 
tions of the principal town, and subjected the Protestants of 
the districts to the same cruelties which he practiced upon 
his own subjects of that faith. On being informed of these 
outrages, William" declared aloud at his table that the Most 
Christian King " should be made to know one day what it 
was to have offended a Prince of Orange." Louis's embassa- 
dor at the Hague having questioned the prince as to the 
meaning of the words, the latter positively refuged either to 
retract or explain them. 

It may not be unimportant to remark that William was, 
like the other princes of his race, an intense Protestant. The 
history of his family was identified with the rise and prog- 
ress of the new views, as well as with the emancipation of 
the United Provinces from. the yoke of Spain and the Liqui- 
sition. His grandfather had fallen a victim to the dagger of 
Gerard, the agent of the Jesuits, and expired in the arms of 
his wife, who was a daughter of Admiral Coligny, the re- 
nowned victim of Saint Bartholomew. Thus the best Hugue- 



WILLIAM AND TEE STUARTS. 181 

not Mood flowed in the veins of the young Prince of Orange, 
and his sympathies were wholly on the side of the fugitives 
who sought the asylum of Holland against the cruelty of 
their i^ersecutor. 

At the same time, William was doubly related to the En- 
glish royal family. His mother was the daughter of Charles 
Lj and his wife was the daughter of James H., then reigning 
king of England. James being then without male issue, the 
Princess of Orange was thus the heiress-presumptive to the 
British throne. Though William may have been ambitious, 
he was cautious and sagacious, and probably had not the re- 
motest idea of anticipating the succession of his wife by the 
overthrow of the government of his father-in-law, but for the 
cu'cumstance about to be summarily described, and which is- 
sued in the Revolution of 1688. 

Although the later Stuart kings, who were Roman Catho- 
lics more or less disguised, had no love for Protestantism, 
they nevertheless felt themselves under the necessity of con- 
tinumg the policy initiated by Queen Elizabeth, of giving a 
free asylum in England to the persecuted French Huguenots. 
In 1681, Charles H. was constrained by public opinion to 
sanction a bill granting large privileges to such of the refu- 
gees as should land on our shores. They were to have free 
letters-patent granted them; and on their arrival at any of 
the outports, their baggage and stock in trade — when 4ihey 
had any — were to be landed duty free. But the greater 
number arrived destitute. For example, a newspaper of the 
day thus announced the landing of a body of the refugees at 
Plymouth : 

"Plymouth, 6th September, 1681. — ^An open boat arrived here yesterday, 
in which were forty or fifty Protestants who resided outside La Eochelle, 
Pour other boats left with this, one of which is said to hare put into Dart- 
mouth, but it is not yet known what became of the other three." 

Large numbers of the fugitives continued to land at all 
the southern ports — at Dover, at Rye, at Southampton, Dart- 
mouth, and Plymouth; and, wherever they landed, they re- 



182 THE HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 

ceived a cordial welcome. Many were pastors, who came 
ashore hungering and in rags, lamenting the flocks, and some 
the wives and children they had left behind them in France. 
The people crowded round the venerable sufferers with in- 
dignant and pitying hearts ; they received them into their 
dwellings, and hospitably relieved their wants. Yery soon, 
the flocks followed in the wake of their pastors ; and the 
landings of the refugees continued for many years, during 
which they crowded all the southern ports. The local cler- 
gy led and directed the hospitality of the inhabitants ; and 
they usually placed the parish church at their disposal dur- 
ing a part of each Sunday, until they could be provided with 
special accommodation of their own.* 

The sight of so much distress, borne so patiently and un- 
complainingly, deeply stirred the heart of the nation, and 
every effort was made to succor and help the poor exiles 
for conscience' sake. Public collections were made in the 
churches, and a fund was raised for the relief of the most ne- 
cessitous, and for enabling the foreigners to proceed inland 
to places where they could pursue their industry. Many 
were thus forwarded from the sea-coast to London, Canter- 
bury, IN^orwich, and other places, where they eventually 
formed prosperous settlements, and laid the foundations of 
important branches of industry. ' 

jyi^anwhile James 11. succeeded to the British throne at 

* At Rye, the refugees were granted the use of the parish church from 
eight to ten in the morning, and frorci twelve to two in the afternoon — the 
appropriation heing duly confinned by the Council of State. Reports having 
been spread abroad that the fugitives were persons of bad character, disaf- 
fected, and Papists in disguise, the vicar and principal citizens of Rye drew 
up and published the following testimonial in their behalf: 

"These are to certifie to all whom it may concern, that the French Prot- 
estants who are settled inhabitants of this town of Rye are a sober, harmless, 
innocent people, such as serve God constantly and uniformly, according to 
the usage and custom of the Church of England. And further, that we be- 
lieve them to be falsely aspersed for Papists and disaffected persons, no such 
thing appearing unto us by the conversations of any of them. This we do 
freely and truly certifie for and of them. In witness whereof, we have here- 
unto set our hands, the 18th day of April, 1682. Wm. Williams, Vicar; 
Thos. Toumay," etc., etc. — State Papers, Domestic Calendar, 1682, No. 65. 
See also Sussex Archoeological Collection, xiii,, 201. 



JAMES U. OF ENGLAND. 183 

the death of his brother Charles IL, on the 6th of January, 
1685 — the year memorable in France as that in which the 
Edict of N'antes was revoked. Charles and James were both 
Roman Catholics — Charles when he was not a scoffer, James 
always. The latter had long been a friend of the Jesuits in 
disguise ; but no sooner was he king than he threw off the 
mask, and exhibited himself in his true character. James 
was not a man to gather wisdom from experience. During 
the exile of his family he had learned nothing and forgotten 
nothing ; and it shortly became clear to the English nation 
that he was bent on pursuing almost the identical course 
which had cost his father his crown and his head. 

If there was one feeling that characterized the English 
■people about this time more than another, it was their aver- 
sion to popery — not merely popery as a religion, but as a 
policy. It was felt to be contrary to the whole spmt, char- 
acter, and tendency of the nation. Popery had so repeated- 
ly exhibited itself as a persecuting policy, that not only the 
religious, but the non-religious ; not only the intelligent few, 
but the illiterate many, regarded it with feelings of deep 
aversion. Great, therefore, was the public indignation when 
it became known that one of the first acts of James, on his 
accession to the throne, was to order the public celebration 
of the mass at Westminster, after an interval of more than a 
century. The king also dismissed from about his person 
clergymen of the English Church, and introduced well-known 
Jesuits in their stead. He degraded several of the bishops, 
though he did not yet venture openly to persecute them. 
But he showed his temper and his tendency by actively re- 
viving the persecutions of the Scotch Presbyterians, whom 
he pursued with a cruelty only equaled by Louis XTV. in his 
dealings with the Huguenots.* 

James IL was but the too ready learner of the lessons in 

* In Scotland, whoever was detected preacliing in a conventicle or attend- 
ing one was punishable with death and the confiscation of all his property. 
Macaulay says the Scotch Act of Parliament (James VII., Sth May, 1685) 
enacting these penalties was passed at the special instance of the king. 



18i THE HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 

des230tism taught him by Louis XIV., whose pensioner* he 
was, and whose ultimate victim he proved to he. The two 
men, indeed, resemhled each other in many respects, and 
their actions ran in almost parallel lines, though those who 
concede to Louis the title of " Great" will probably object 
that the English king was merely the ape of the French one.f 
They were both dissolute, and both bigots, vibrating alter- 
nately between their mistresses and their confessors. Wliat 
La Valliere, Montespan, and Main tenon were to Louis XIV., 
that Arabella Churchill and Catharine Sedley were to James 
n., while the queens of both were left to pine m sorrow and 
neglect. The principal difference between them in this re- 
spect was, that Louis sinned with comely mistresses, and 
James with ugly ones.J Louis sought absolution from P^re 
la Chaise, as James from Father Petre ; and when penance 
had to be done, both laid it alike upon their Protestant sub- 
jects — ^Louis increasing the pressure of persecution on the 
Huguenots, and James upon the Puritans and Covenanters. 
Both employed military missionaries in carrying out theii* 
designs of conversion ; the agents of Louis being the " drag- 
ons" of Noailles, those of James the dragoons of Claverhouse. 
Both were despisers of constitutional power, and sought" to 

* James II. was from the first the pensioner of Louis XIV. One of his 
first acts on the death of Charles was to supplicate Barillon, the representa- 
tive of Louis at the English court, for money. Rochester, James's prime 
minister, said to Bai-illon, " The money will be well laid out ; yom- master 
can not employ his revenues better, liepresent to him strongly how import- 
ant it is that the King of England should be dependent, not on his own peo- 
ple, but on the friendship of the King of France alone." Louis had already 
anticipated the wishes of James by remitting to him bills of exchange equal 
to £37,500 sterling. James shed tears of joy on receiving them. In the 
course of a few weeks Barillon obtained a further remittance from France of 
about £12,000 sterling, and he was instructed to furnish the English govern- 
ment with the money for the pnipose of cormpting members of the new 
House of Commons. — See Macaulay's Hist, of England, ed. 1849, p. 458, 463. 

t Thus James aped Louis even in his worship, introducing four-and-twen- 
ty fiddlers in his church choir after the French king's model. 

t Charles 11. used to say that one might fancy his brother's mistresses 
were given to him by his father's confessor as penances, they were all so ugly. 
Catharine Sedley herself wondered what James chose them for. " We wei-e 
none of us handsome," she said, "and if we had wit, he had not enough to 
find it out. " 



DESPOTIC MEASURES OF JAMES II. 185 

centre the government in themselves. But, while Louis suc- 
ceeded in crushing the Huguenots, James ignominiously fail- 
ed in crushing the Puritans. Louis, it is true, brought France 
to the verge of ruin, and paved the way for the French Rev- 
olution of 1792; while, happily for England, the designs of 
James were summarily thwarted by the English Revolution 
of 1688, and the ruin of his kingdom was thus averted. 

The designs of James upon the consciences of his people 
were not long in developing themselves. The persecution 
of the Scotch Covenanters was carried on with increased vh-- 
ulence until resistance almost disappeared, and then he turn- 
ed his attention to the English Puritans. Baxter, Howe, Bun- 
yan, and hundreds of nonconformist ministers were thrown 
into jail; but there were as yet no hangings and shootings of 
them as m Scotland. To strengthen his power, and enable 
him to adopt more decisive measures, James next took steps 
to augment the standing army — a measure which exposed 
him to increased public odium. Though contrary to law, he 
in many cases dismissed the Protestant officers of regiments, 
and appointed Roman Catholics in their stead. To render 
the appointments legal, he proposed to repeal the Test Act, 
as well as the Habeas Coi'pus Act ; but his minister Halifax 
refusing to concur in this course, he was dismissed, and Par- 
liament adjourned. Immediately before its reassembling 
came the news from France of the Revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes and the horrible cruelties perpetrated on the Hu- 
guenots. The intelligence caused a thrill of indignation to 
run throughout England ; and very shortly, crowds of the 
destitute fugitives landed on the southern coast, and spread 
abroad the tale of horror. 

Shortly after, there came from France the report of a 
speech addressed by the Bishop of Yalance to Louis XIY. 
in the name of the French clergy. " The pious sovereign 
of England," said the orator, " looked to the Most Christian 
King, the eldest son of the Church, for support against a 
heretical nation." The natural inference drawn was, that 



186 THE HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 

what Louis had done in France, James was about to imitate 
in England by means of his new standing army, commanded 
by Roman Catholic officers. 

To allay the general alarm which began to prevail, James 
pretended to disapprove of the cruelties to which the Hugue- 
nots had been subjected ; and, in deference to public opinion, 
he granted some relief to the exiles from his privy purse, and 
invited his subjects to imitate his liberality by making a 
public collection for them in the churches throughout the 
kingdom. His acts, however, speedily belied his words. At 
the instigation of Barillon, he had the book published in Hol- 
land by the banished Huguenot pastor Claude, describing the 
sufferings of his brethren, burnt by the hangman before the 
Royal Exchange ; and when the public collection was made 
in the churches, and £40,000 was paid into the chamber of 
London, James gave orders that none should receive a far- 
thing of relief unless they first took the sacrament according 
to the Anglican ritual. Many of the exiles who came for 
help, when they heard of the terms on which alone it was 
to be granted, went away, um-elieved, with sad and sorrow- 
ful hearts. 

James proceeded steadily on his reactionary course. He 
ordered warrants to be drawn, in defiance of the law, author- 
izing priests of the Church of Rome to hold benefices in the 
Church of England; and various appointments were made in 
conformity with his royal will. A Jesuit was quartered as 
chaj)lain in University College, Oxfcird, and the Roman Cath- 
olic rites were there publicly celebrated. The deanery of 
Christchurch was presented to a minister of the Church of 
Rome, and mass was duly celebrated there. Roman Catho- 
lic chapels and convents rose all over the country ; and Fran- 
ciscan, Carmelite, and Benedictine monks appeared openly, 
in their cowls, beads, and conventual garb. The king made 
no secret of his intention to destroy the Protestant Church ; 
and he lost no time in carrying out his measures, even in the 
face of popular tumult and occasional rioting, placing his re- 



THE ENGLISH CRISIS. 187 

- , _ 

liance mainly upon Hs standing army, wliich was tlien en- 
camped on Hounslow Heath. At the same time, Tyrconnel 
was sent over to Ireland to root out the Protestant colonies 
there, and one of his first acts was to cast adi-ift about 4000 
Protestant officers and soldiers, supplanting them by as many 
stanch Papists. Those in his confidence boasted that in a 
few months there would not be a man of English race left in 
the Irish army. The Irish Protestants, indeed, began to fear 
another massacre, and a number of families, principally gen- 
tlemen, artificers, and tradesmen, left Dublin for England in 
the course of a few days. 

At length resistance began to show itself. The Parlia- 
ments both of England and Scotland pronounced against the 
king's policy, and he was unable to carry his measures by 
constitutional methods. He accordingly resolved, like Louis 
XIV., to rule by the strong hand, and to govern by royal 
edict. Such was the state of afi'airs, rapidly verging on an- 
archy or civil war, when the English nation, sick of the rule 
of James H., after a reign of only three years, and longing 
for relief, looked abroad for help, and, with almost general 
consent, fixed their eyes upon "William, Prince of Orange, as 
the one man capable of assisting them in their time of need. 

The Prince of Orange had meanwhile been diligently oc- 
cupied, among other things, with the reorganization of his 
army; and the influx of veteran officers and soldiers of the 
French king, banished from France because of their religion, 
furnished him with every facility for this purpose. He pro- 
posed to the States of Holland that they should raise two 
new regiments, to be composed entii'ely of Huguenots ; but 
the States were at first unwilling to make such an addition 
to their army. They feared the warlike designs of their 
young prince, and were mainly intent on reducing the heavy 
imposts that weighed upon the country, occasioned by the 
recent invasion of Louis XIV., from the destructive effects 
of which they were still suffering. 

William, fearing lest the veterans whom he so anxiously 



188 THE HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 

— - — - 

desired to retain in his service should depart into other lands, 
then publicly proclaimed that he would himself pay the ex- 
penses of all the military refugees rather than that they 
should leave Holland. On this the States hesitated no lon- 
ger, but agreed to pension the French officers until they 
could be incorporated in the Dutch army, and 180,000 florins 
a year were voted for the purpose. Companies of French 
cadets were also formed and maintained at the expense of 
the state. The Huguenot officers and men were drafted as 
rapidly as possible into the Dutch army ; and before long 
William saw his ranks swelled by a formidable body of vet- 
eran troops, together with a large number of officers of fusil- 
iers from Strasburg, Metz, and "Verdun. Whole companies 
of Huguenot troops were drafted into each regiment under 
their own officers, while the principal fortresses at Breda, 
Maestricht, Bergen - op -Zoom, Bois - le -Due, Zutphen, Nime- 
guen, Arnheim, and Utrecht were used as so many depots 
for such officers and soldiers as continued to take refuge in 
Holland. 

William's plans were so carefully prepared, and he con- 
ducted his proceedings with such impenetrable mystery, that 
both James H. and Louis XIV. were kept entirely in the dark 
as to his plans and intentions. At length the prince was 
ready to embark his army, and England was ready to receive 
him. It forms no part of our purpose to relate the circum- 
stances connected with the embarkation of William, his land- 
ing in England, and the revolution which followed, farther 
than to illustrate the part which the banished Huguenots 
played in that great political transaction. The narrative 
will be found brilliantly narrated in the pages of Macaulay, 
though that histoi'ian passes over with too slight notice the 
services of the Huguenots. 

Michelet, the French writer, observes with justice : " The 
army of William was strong precisely in that Calvinistic ele- 
ment which James repudiated in England — I mean in our 
Huguenot soldiers, the brothers of the Puritans. I am aston- 



EXPEDITION TO ENGLAND. 189 

ished that Macaulay has thought fit to leave this circum- 
stance* in the background. I can not believe that great En- 
gland, with all her glories and her inheritance of liberty, is 
unwilling nobly to avow the part which we Frenchmen had 
in her deliverance. In the Homeric enumeration which the 
historian gives of the followers of William, he reckons up 
English, Germans, Dutch, Swedes, Swiss, with the picturesque 
detail of then- arms, uniforms, and all, down even to the two 
hundred negroes, with their black faces set off by embroid- 
ered turbans and white feathers, who followed the body of 
English gentry led by the Earl of Macclesfield. But he did 
not see our Frenchmen. Apparently the proscribed Hugue- 
not, soldiers who followed William did not do honor to the 
prince by their clothes ! Doubtless many of them wore the 
dress in which they had fled from France — and it had become 
dusty, worn, and tattered."* 

There is, indeed, little reason to doubt, notwithstanding 
Macaulay's oversight, that the flower of the little anny with 
which William landed at Torbay, on the 15 th of November, 
1688, consisted of Huguenot soldiers trained under Schom- 
berg, Turenne, and Conde. The exj^edition included three 
entire regiments of French infantry numbering 2250 men, 
and a complete squadron of French cavalry. These were 
nearly all veteran troops, officers and men, whose valor had 
been proved on many a hard-fought field. Many of them 
were gentlemen born, who, unable to obtain commissions as 
officers, were content to serve in the ranks. The number of 
French officers was very large in proportion to the whole 
force — 736, besides those in command of the French regi- 
ments, being distributed through all the battalions. It is, 
moreover, worthy of note that William's ablest and most 
trusted officers were Huguenots. Schomberg, the refugee 
Marshal of France, was next in command to the prince him- 
self: and such was the confidence which that skillful general 
inspired, that the Princess of Orange gave him secret instruc- 

* MiCHELET — Louis XIV. et la Revocation, p. 418-19. 



190 THE HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 

tions to assert her rights, and carry out the enterprise should 
her husband fall.* "William's three aids-de-camp, De I'Etang, 
De la Meloniere, and the Marquis d'Arzilliers, were French 
officers, as were also the chiefs of the engineers and the artil- 
lery, Gambon and Goulon, the latter being one of Vauban's 
most distinguished pupils. Fifty -four French gentlemen 
served in William's regiment of horse-guards, and thirty-four 
in his body-guard. Among the officers of the army of liber- 
ation, distinguished alike by their buth and their military 
skill, were the cavalry officers Didier de Boncourt and Cha- 
lant de Remeugnac, colonels ; Danserville, lieutenant colonel ; 
and Petit and Picard, majors; while others of equal birth and 
distinction as soldiers served in the infantry.f 

Marshal Schomberg was descended from the old Dukes of 
Cleves, whose arms he bore ; and several of his ancestors held 
high rank in the French service. One of them was killed at 
the battle of Ivry on the side of Henry FV., and another com- 
manded under Richelieu at the siege of Rochelle. The mar- 
shal, whose mother was an Englishwoman of the noble house 
of Dudley, began his career in the Swedish army in the Thii'ty 
Years' War, after which he entered the service of the I^ether- 
lands, and subsequently that of France. There he led an act- 
ive and distinguished life, and rose by successive steps to the 
rank of marshal. The great Conde had the highest opinion 
of his military capacity, comparing him to Turenne. He 
commanded armies successfully in Flanders, Portugal, and 
Holland; but on the Revocation of the Edict, being unable 
to conform to popery, he felt compelled to resign his military 
honors and emoluments, and leave France forever. 

Schomberg first went into Portugal, which was assigned to 

* Weiss, History of the French Protestant Refugees, p. 232. 

t Weiss mentions among the captains of horse Massole de Montant, Petit, 
De Maricourt, De Boncourt, De Pabrice, De Lauray, Baron d'Enti-agues, Le 
Coq de St. Leger, De Saumaise, De Lacroix, De Dampierre; while among the 
captains of infantiy we find De Saint Saiiveur, Kapin (aftenvai-d the histori- 
an), De Cosne - Ciiavernay, Danserville, Massole de Montant, Jacques de 
Baune, Baron d'Avejan, Nolibois, Belcastel, Jaucoui-t de Villamoue, Lisle- 
maretz, De Montazier, and the three brothers De Batz. — Ibid., p. 232, 



THE HUGUENOT OFFICERS. ■ 191 

him as his place of exile ; but he shortly after left that coun- 
try to take service, with numerous other French officers, 
under Frederick William of Brandenburg. His stay at Berlin 
•was, however, of short duration ; for when he heard of the in- 
tentions of William of Orange with respect to England, he at 
once determined to join him. Offers of the most tempting 
kind were held out by Frederick William to induce him to 
remain in Prussia. The elector proposed to appoint him 
governor general, minister of state, and member of the privy 
council; but in vain. Schomberg felt that the interests of 
Protestantism, of which William of Orange was the recog- 
nized leader, required him to forego his own personal inter- 
ests ; and, though nearly seventy years of age, he quitted the 
service of Prussia to enter that of Holland. He was accom- 
panied by a large number of veteran Huguenot officers^ fiill 
of bitter resentment against the monarch who had driven 
them forth from France, and who burned to meet their per- 
secutors in the field, and avenge themselves of the cruel 
wrongs which they had suffered at their hands. 

What the embittered feelings of the French Protestant 
gentry were, and what was the nature of the injuries they 
had suffered because of their religion, may, however, be best 
explained by the following narrative of the sufferings and 
adventures of a Norman gentleman who succeeded in mak- 
ing his escape jfrom France, joined the liberating army of Wil- 
liam of Orange as captain of dragoons, took part in the expe- 
dition to England, served with the English army in the Lish 
campaigns, and afterward settled at Portarlington in Ireland, 
where he died in 1709. 



CHAPTER X 

DUMONT DE BOSTAQUET. — HIS ESCAPE FROM FRANCE INTO 
HOLLAND. 

Isaac Dumont de Bostaqtjet was a Protestant gentleman 
possessing considerable landed property near Yerville, in Nor- 
mandy, about eight leagues jfi'om Dieppe. He had been well 
educated in his youth, and served with distinction in the 
French army as an officer of IS'orman horse. After leaving 
the army he married and settled on his paternal estates, 
where he lived the life of a retii*ed country gentleman.* 

It was about the year 1661 that the first mutterings of the 
coming storm reached De Bostaquet in his ancient chateau 
of La Fontelaye. The Roman Catholics, supported by the 
king, had begun to pull down the Protestant churches m 
many districts, and now it began to be rumored abroad that 
several in Normandy were to be demolished; among others, 
the church of Lindeboeuf,in which De Bostaquet and his fam- 
ily worshiped. He at once set out for Paris, to .endeavor, if 
possible, to prevent this outrage being done. He saw his old 
commander Turenne, and had interviews with the king's min- 
isters, but without any satisfactory result ; for on his return 
to Normandy he found the temple at Lindeboeuf had been 
demolished during his absence. 

When De Bostaquet complained to the local authorities of 

* The account given in this chapter is mainly drawn from the M^moires 
InMits de Dumont de Bostaquet, Gcntilhomme Normand, edited by MM. Read 
and Waddington, and published at Paris in 1SG4. The MS. was in the pos- 
session of Dr.Vignolles, Dean of Ossory, a lineal descendant of De Bostaquet, 
and was lent by him to Lord Macaulay for perusal while the latter was en- 
gaged on his History of England. Lord Macaulay did not make much use 
of the MS. , probably because it was difficult to read in the old French ; but 
the references made to it in the foot-notes of his work induced the Trench 
editors to apply for a copy of the MS. to the Dean of Ossory, who courteous- 
ly acceded to their request, and hence its recent publication. 



CHATEAU OF LA FONTELAYE. 193 

the outrage, lie was told that the king was resolved to render 
the exercise of the Protestant worship so difficult, that it 
would be necessary for all Protestants throughout France to 
conform themselves to the king's religion. This, however, 
De Bostaquet was not prepared to do; and a temporary- 
place of worship was fitted up in the chateau at La Fonte- 
laye, where the scattered* flock of Lindehoeuf reassembled, 
and the seigneur himself on an emergency preached, bap- 
tized, and performed the other offices of religion. And thus 
he led an active and useful life in the neighborhood for many 
years. 

But the persecution of the Protestants became increasingly 
hard to bear. More of their churches were pulled down, and 
their worship was becoming all but proscribed. De Bosta- 
quet began to meditate emigration into Holland ; but he was 
bound to France by many ties — of family as well as proper- 
ty. By his first wife he had a family of six daughters and 
one son. Shortly after her death he niarried a second time, 
and a second family of six children was added to the first. 
But his second wife also died,'leaving him with a very large 
family to rear and educate; and, as intelligent female help 
was essential for this purpose, he was thus induced to marry 
a third time ; and a third family, of two sons and three 
daughters, was added to the original number. 

At last the edict was revoked, and the dragoons were let 
loose on the provinces to compel the conversion of the Prot- 
estants. A body of cuirassiers was sent into IN'ormandy, 
which had hitherto been exempt from such visitations. On 
the intelligence of their advance reaching De Bostaquet, he 
summoned a meeting of the neighboring Protestant gentry 
at his house at La Fontelaye, to consider what was best to 
be done. He then declared to them his intention of leaving 
France should the king persist in his tyrannical course. Al- 
though all who were present praised his resolution, none of- 
fered to accompany him — not even his eldest son, who had 
been married only a few months before. When the ladies of 



194 BUMONT BE BOSTAQJJET. 

the household were apprised of the resolution he had ex- 
pressed, they implored him, with tears in their eyes, not to 
leave them ; if he did, they felt themselves to be lost. His 
wife, on the eve of another confinementjoined her entreaties 
to those of his children, and he felt that under such circum- 
stances flight was impossible. 

The intelligence shortly readied La Fontelaye that the 
cuirassiers had entered Rouen sword in hand, under the Mar- 
quis de Beaupre Choiseul ; that the quartering of the troops 
on the inhabitants was producing " conversions" by whole- 
sale ; and that crowds were running to M. de Marillac, the in- 
tendant, to sign their abjuration, and thus get -rid of the sol- 
diers. De Bostaquet then resolved to go over to Rouen him- 
self, and see with his own eyes what was going on there. He 
was greatly shocked both by what he saw and by what he 
heard. Sorrow sat on all countenances except those of the 
dragoons, who paraded the streets with a truculent aii*. There 
was a constant moving of them from house to house, where 
those quartered remained, swearing, drinking, and hectoring, 
until the inmates had signed their abjuration, when they were 
withdrawn for the purpose of being quartered elsewhere. De 
Bostaquet was ineffably pained to find that these measures 
were generally successful ; that all classes were making haste 
to conform ; and that even his brother-in-law, M. de Lamber- 
ville, who had been so stanch but a few days before, had been 
carried along by the stream and abjured. 

De Bostaquet hastened from the place and returned to La 
Fontelaye sad at heart. The intelligence he brought with 
him of the dragonnades at Rouen occasioned deep concern in 
the minds of his household; but. only one feeling pervaded 
them — resignation and steadfastness. De Bostaquet took ref- 
uge in the hope that, belonging as he did to the noblesse, he 
would be spared the quartering of troops in his family. But 
he was mistaken. At Rouen, the commandant quartered 
thirty horsemen upon Sieur Chauvel, until he and his lady, to 
get rid of them, signed their abjuration; and an intimation 



THE FORCED « CONVERSIONS." 195 

was shortly after made to De Bostaquet, that unless he and 
his family abjured, a detachment of twenty-five dragoons 
would be quartered in his chateau. Fearing the eflfects on 
his wife in her then delicate state of health, as well as desir- 
ins: to save his children from the horrors of such a visitation, 
he at once proceeded to Dieppe with his eldest son, and prom- 
ised to sign his abjuration, after placing himself for a time 
under the instruction of the reverend penitentiary of Notre 
Dame de Rouen. 

N"o sooner had he put his name to the paper than he felt 
degraded in his own eyes. He felt that he had attached his 
signature to a falsehood, fer he had no intention of attending 
mass or abjuring his religion. But his neighbors were now 
abjuring all round. His intimate friend, the Sieur De Boiss6, 
had a company of musketeers quartered on him mitil he 
signed. Another neighbor, the Sieur de Montigny, was in 
like manner compelled to abjure — his mother and four 
daughters, to avoid the written lie, having previously es- 
caped into Holland. ISTone were allowed to go free. Old 
M. de Grosmenil, De Bostaquet's father-in-law, though laid 
up by gout and scarce able to hold a pen, was compelled to 
sign. In anticipation of the quartering of the dragoons on 
the family, his wife had gone into concealment, the children 
had left the house, and even the domestics could with difficul- 
ty be induced to remain. The eldest daughter fled through 
Picardy into Holland; the younger daughters took refuge 
with their relatives in Rouen ; the son also fled, none knew 
whither. Madame de Grosmenil issued from her conceal- 
ment to take her place by her suffering husband's bed, and 
she too was compelled to sign her abjuration ; but she was 
so shocked and grieved by the sin she felt she had commit- 
ted that she shortly after fell ill and died. " All our fami- 
lies," says De Bostaquet, " succumbed by turns." A body of 
troops next made their appearance at La Fontelaye, and re- 
quired all the members of the household to sign their abju- 
ration. De Bostaquet's wife, his mother — whose gray hairs 



196 DUMONT DE BOSTAQUET. 

did not protect her— Ms sons, daugliterSj and domestics, were 
all required to sign. 

"The sad state to which my soul was reduced," continties De Bostaquet, 
"and the general desolation of the Church, occasioned me the profoundest 
grief. AU feeling equally criminal, we no' longer enjoyed that tran- 
quillity of mind which before had made us happy. God seemed to have hid 
liimself from us ; and though by our worship, which we continued publicly to 
celebrate, we might give evidence of the purity of our sentiments and the sin- 
cerity of our repentance, my crime never ceased to weigh upon my mind, and 
I bitterly reproached myself for having set so bad an example before my fam- 
ily as well as my neighbors But I could not entertain without giief 

the thought of my children being exposed to the danger of falling a prey to 
these demons, who might any moment havie earned them away from me. I 
was constantly meditating flight ; but the flesh fought against the spirit, and 
the fear of abandoning this large family, together with the difficulty I saw be- 
fore me of providing a subsistence for them in a foreign land, held me back ; 
though I still watched for a favorable opportunity for escaping from France, 
by which time I hoped to be enabled to provide myself with money by the sale 
of my property."* 

The whole family now began seriously to meditate flight 
from France — ^De Bostaquet's mother, notwithstanding her 
burden of eighty years, being one of the most eager to es- 
cape. Attempts were first made to send away the gii-ls sin- 
gly, and several journeys were made 'to the nearest port with 
that object ; but no ship was to be met with, and the sea- 
coast was found strictly guarded. De Bostaquet's design 
having become known to the commandant at Dieppe, he was 
privately warned of the risk he ran of being informed against, 
and of having his property confiscated and himself sent to the 
galleys. But the ladies of the family became every day more 
urgent to fly, declaring that their consciences would not al- 
low them any longer hypocritically to conform to a church 
which they detested, and that they were resolved to escape 
from their present degradation at all risks. 

At length it was arranged that an opportunity should be 
taken of escapiag during the fetes of Pentecost, when there 
was to be a grand review of the peasantry appointed to guard 
* De Bostaquet — Mimoires Li^dits, p. 11 1 . 



ATTEMPTED FLIGHT 197 

the coast, during wMcli they would necessarily be withdrawn 
from their posts as watchers of the Huguenot fugitives. The 
family plans were thus somewhat precipitated, before De 
Bostaquet had been enabled to convert his property into 
money, and thereby provide himself with the means of con- 
ducting the emigration of so large a family. It was first in- 
tended that the young ladies should endeavor. to make their 
escape, their father accompanying them to the coast to see 
them safe on board ship, and then returning to watch over 
his wife, who was approaching the time of her confinement. 

On the morning of Pentecost Sunday, the whole family as- 
sembled at worship, and besought the blessing of God on 
their projected enterprise. After dinner the party set out. 
It consisted of De Bostaquet, his aged mother, several grown 
daughters, and many children. The fiather had intended 
that the younger son should stay behind, but with tears in 
his eyes he implored leave to accompany them. The caval- 
cade first proceeded to the village of La Haliere, where ar- 
rangements had been made for their spending the night, while 
De Bostaquet proceeded to Saint Aubin to engage an English 
vessel lying there to take them off the coast. 

The following night, about ten o'clock, the party set out 
from Luneray, accompanied by many friends and a large, 
number of fugitives, like themselves making for the sea- 
coast. De Bostaquet rode first, with his sister behind him 
on a pillion. His son-in-law De Renfreville, and his wife, 
rode another horse in like manner. De Bostaquet's mother, 
the old lady of eighty, was mounted on a quiet pony, and at- 
tended by two peasants. His son and daughter were also 
mounted, the latter on a peasant's horse which carried the 
valises. De Renfreville's valet rode another nag, and was 
armed with a musketoon. Thus mounted, after many adieus 
the party set out for Saint Aubin. On their way thither 
they were joined by other relatives — ^M. de Montcomet, an 
old officer in the French army, and De Bostaquet's brother- 
in-law, M. de Bequigny, who was accompanied by a German 
valet with another young lady behind him on a pillion. 



198 DUMONT BE BOSTAQUET. 

*'We found before us in the plain," says De Bostaquet, "more than three 
hundred persons — men, women, and children — aU making for the sea-coast, 
some "for Saint Auhin, and others for Quiberville. Neai-ly the whole of these 
people were peasants, there being very few of the better class among them ; 
and none bore arms but ourselves and the two valets of De Bequigny and De 
Renfreville, who canied musketoons. The facility •^ith whicli fugitives had 
heretofore been enabled to escape, and the belief that there was no danger 
connected with om* undertaking, made us travel without much precaution. 
The night was charming, and the moon shone out brightly. The delicious 
coolness which succeeded the heat of the preceding day enabled the poor 
peasants on foot to march forwai'd with a lighter step ; and the prospect of a 
speedy deliverance from their captivity made them almost run toward the 
shore with as much joy as if they had been bound for a wedding-party. 

" "V^e passed by the end of the village of Avrememl, where a gi-eat number 
of the inhabitants had assembled to see us pass. They wished us hon voyage^ 
and all things se,emed favorable for om* design. On the way, M. de Bequig- 
ny, who had remained behind, spurred on to the head of the troop where I 
was to inform me that Madame de Roncheraye, my sister-in-law, had come 
to join us in her carriage, with her three children and my daughter, from Ri- 
bceuf, together with a young lady from Rouen, named Duval, and that they 
begged me to wait for them. I accordingly checked the cavalcade, and we 
went forward more slowly. 

" Those who intended to embark at QuibeiTille now left us, while those 
who were bound for Saint Aubin proceeded in that direction. As yet we had 
encountered no obstacle. We passed through FlainviUe without any one 
spealdng to us ; and, flattering om-selves that eveiy thing was propitious, we 
at length reached the shore. We found the coast-guard station empty ; no 
one appeared ; and without fear we alighted to rest our horses. We seated 
the ladies on the shingle by the side of my mother, a tall giil from Caen keep- 
ing them company. 

" I was disappointed at seeing no signs of the vessel in which we were to 
embark. I did not know that they were waiting for some signal to approach 
the land. While I was in this state of anxiety, my son came to inform me 
that his aunt had arrived. Her carriage had not been able to reach the 
shore, and she waited for me about a gun-shot off. I went on foot, accom- 
panied by my son, to find her. She and her childi'en were bathed in tears at 
the thought of their separation. She embraced me tenderly, and the sight 
of herself and little ones afflicted me exceedingly. My daughter from Ri- 
boBuf alighted from the carriage to salute me, as well as Mademoiselle Duval. 

"I had been with them for a very little while, when I perceived there was 
a general movement down by the margin of the sea, where I had left my 
party. I asked what it was, and fearing lest the vessel might appear too far 



ATTACKED BY THE COASTGUARD. WJ 

off, I proposed to have the carriage brouglit nearer to the shore ; hut I was 
not left long in -uncertainty. A peasant called out to me that there was a 
gi-eat disturbance going foi-ward ; and soon after I heard the sound of drums 
beating, followed by a discharge of musketiy. It immediately occuiTed to 
me that it must be the coast-guard returned to occupy their post, who had 
fallen on our party, and I began to fear that we were irretrievably lost. I 
was on foot alone, -svith my little son, near the carriage. I did not then see 
two horsemen coming down upon us at full speed, but I heard voices crying 
with all then- might, ' Help ! help !' I found myself in a strange state of em- 
baiTassment, without means of defense, when my lackey, who was holding my 
horses on the beach, ran toward me with my arms. 

*'I had only time to throw myself on my horse and call out to my sister- 
in-law in the carriage to turn back quickly, when I hastened, pistol in hand, 
to the place whence the screams proceeded. Scarce was I clear of the car- 
riage when a horseman shouted 'Kill! lull!' I answered, 'Fire, rascal!' 
At the same moment he fired his pistol full at me, so near that the discharge 
flashed along my left cheek and set fire to my peruke, but without wounding 
me. I was stiU so near the carriage that both the coachman and lackey saw 
my hair in a blaze. I took aim with my pistol at the stomach of the scoim- 
drel, but, happily for hun, it missed fire, although I had primed it afi-esh on 
leaving Luneray. The horseman at once tmned tail, accompanied by his 
comrade. I then took my other pistol, and followed them at the trot, when 
the one called out to the other, Tu-e! fire!' One of them had a musket, 
with which he took aim at me, and as it was nearly as light as day, and I was 
only two or thi*ee horse-lengths from him, he fired and hit me in the left arm, 
with which I was holding my bridle. I moved my arm quickly to ascertain 
whether it was broken, and putting spm-s to my horse, gained the crupper of 
the man who had first fired at me, who was now on my left, and as he bent 
over his horse's neck I dischai-ged my pistol full into his haunch. The two 
horsemen at once disappeared and fled. 

"I now heard the voice of De Bequigny, who, embarrassed by his assail- 
ants on foot, was furiously defending himself; and, without losing time in 
pm-suing the fugitives, I ran up to him sword in hand, encountering on the 
way my son-in-law, who was coming toward me. I asked him whither he 
was going, and he said he was running in search of the horses, wliich his val- 
et had taken away. I told him it was in vain, and that he was flying as fast 
as legs could carry him, for I had caught sight of him passing as I mounted 
my horse. But I had no time to reason with him. In a moment I had join- 
ed De Bequigny, who had with hun only old Montcomet, my wife's uncle ; 
but, before a few minutes had passed, we had scattered the canaille, and 
found ourselves masters of the field. De Be'quigny informed me that his 
horse was wounded, and that he could do no more ; and I told him that I was 



200 DUMONTDU BOSTAQUET. 

wounded in the arm, and that it was necessary, without loss of time, to ascer- 
tain what had become of the poor women. 

^'We found them ahnost in the same place that we had left them, but 
abandoned by every body ; the attendants and the rest of the troop having 
run away along the coast, under the chfFs. My mother, who was extremely 
deaf through age, had not heard the shots, and did not know what to make 
of the distm'bance, thinking only of the vessel, which had not yet made its 
appearance. My sister, greatly alarmed, on my reproaching her Avith not 
having quietly followed the others, answered that my mother was unable to 
walk, being too much burdened by her dress ; for, fearing the coldness of the 
night, she had clothed herself heavily. M. de Be'quigny then suggested that 
it might yet be possible to rally some of the men of our troop, and thereby 
rescue the ladies from their peril. Without loss of time I ran along the 
beach for some distance, supposing that some of the men might have hidden 
under the cliffs through fear ; but my labors were useless — I saw only some 
girls, who fled away weeping. Considering that my presence would be more- 
useful to our poor women, I rejoined them at the gallop. M. de Bequigny, 
on his part, had retmned from the direction of the -coast-guai-d station, to as- 
certain whether there were any persons lurking there, for we entertained no 
doubt that it was the coast-guard that had attacked us ; and the two horse- 
men with whom I had the affair confinned me in this impression, for I knew 
that such men were appointed to patrol the coasts, and visit the posts, all 
the night through. On coming up to me, Beqmgny said he feared we were 
lost ; that the rascals had rallied to the number of about forty, and were pre- 
paring for another attack. 

"We had no balls remaining \nt\\ which to reload oiu* pistols. Loss of 
blood akeady made me feel veiy faint. De Bequigny's horse had been 
wounded in the shoulder by a musket-shot, and had now only three legs to. 
go on. In this extremity, and not knowing what to do to save the women 
•and children, I begged him to set my mother on horseback. He tried, but 
she was too lieaAy, and he set her down again. M. de Montcornet was the 
only other man we had with us, but he was useless. He was seventy-two, 
and the little nag he rode could not be of much serNdce. De Be'cjuigny's 
valet had run away, after having in the skinnish fired his musketoon and 
wounded a coast-guai-dsman in the shoulder, of which the man died. The 
tide, which began to rise, deterred me from leading the women and children 
under the cliifs ; besides, I was uncertain of the route in that direction. My 
mother and sister conjured me to fly instantly, because, if I was captm-ed, my 
ruin was certain, while the worst that could happen to them would be con- 
finement in a convent. 

"In this dire extremity my heart was torn by a thousand conflicting emo- 
tions, and ovei-whelmed with despair at being unable to rescue those so dear 



ALARMING POSITION. 201 

to me from tlie perils which "beset them. I knew not what course to take. 
WhUe in this state of irresolution, I found myself becoming faint through loss 
of blood. Taking out my handkerchief, I asked my sister to tie it round my 
arm, which was still bleeding ;. but wanting the nerve to do so, as well as not 
being sufficiently tall to reach me on horseback, I addressed myself to the 
young lady from Caen, who was with them, and whom they called La Rosiere. 
She was taU, and by the light of the moon she looked a handsome girl. She 
had great reluctance to approach me in the state in which I was ; but at last, 
after entreating her earnestly, she did me the service which I required, and 
the farther flow of blood was stopped. 

"After resisting for some time the entreaties of my mother and sister to 
leave them and fly for my life — seeing that my staying longer with them was 
useless, and that De Montcomet and De Bequigny also urged me to fly — I 
felt that at length I must yield to my fate, and leave them in the hands of 
Providence. My sister, who feared being robbed by the coast-guard on their 
return, gave me her twenty louis d'ors to keep, and praying heaven to pre- 
• serve me, they forced me to leave them and take to flight, which I did with 
the greatest giief that I had ever experienced in the whole coui-se of my life. "* 

De Bostaquet and Ms friend De Bequigny first fled along 
the shore, but the shmgle greatly hindered them. On theii* 
■way they fell in first with De Bequigny's valet, who had 
fled with the horses, and shortly after with Judith- Julie, Du- 
mont's little daughter, accompanied by a peasant and his 
wife. She was lifted up and placed in front of the valet, 
and they rode on. Leaving the sea-shore by a road which 
led from the beach inland, Dumont preceded them, his drawn 
sword in his hand. They had not gone far when they were 
met by six horsemen^ who halted and seemed uncertain 
whether to attack or not ; but, observing Dumont in an at- 
titude of defense, they retired, and the fugitives fled as fast 
as De Bequigny's wounded horse would allow them to Lu- 
neray, to the house from which they had set out the previ- 
ous night. There he left his little daughter, and again De 
Bequigny and he rode out into the night. As day broke 
they reached Saint Laurent. They went direct to the house 
of a Huguenot surgeon, who removed Dumont's bloody shirt, 
probed the wound to his extreme agony, but could not find 
* Memoir es In€dits, p. 121-5. 



202 DUMONT BE BOSTAQUET. 

the ball, tlie surgeon concluding that it was firmly lodo-ed 
between the two bones of the fore-arm. The place was too 
unsafe for Dumont to remain, and, though suffering much 
and greatly needing rest, he set out again, and made for his 
family mansion at La Fontelaye. But he did not dare to 
enter the house. Alighting at the door of on-e of his tenants 
named Malherbe, devoted to his interest, he dispatched him 
with a message to Madame de Bostaquet, who at once hast- 
ened to her husband's side. Her agony of grief may be im- 
agined on seeing him, pale and suffering, his clothes covered 
with blood, and his bandaged arm in a sling. Giving her 
hasty instructions as to what she was to do in his absence, 
among other things with respect to the sale of his property 
and every thing that could be converted into money, and 
after much weeping, and taking many tender embraces of 
his wife and daughters, committing them to the care of God, 
he mounted agam, and fled northward for liberty and life. 

De Bostaquet proceeds in his narrative to give a very 
graphic account of his flight across N'ormandy, Picardy, Ar- 
tois, and Flanders, into Holland, in the course of which he 
traversed woods, swam rivers, and had many hairbreadth es- 
capes. Ejiowing the country thoroughly, and having many 
friends and relatives in ISTormandy and Picardy, Roman Cath- 
olics as well as Protestants, he often contrived to obtain a 
night's shelter, a change of linen, and sometimes a change of 
horses for himself and his friend, Saint-Foy, who accompanied 
him. They lodged the first night at Varvannes with a kins- 
man on whom he could rely, for M. de Verdun, says De Bosta- 
quet, " was a good man, though a papist and even a bigot." A 
surgeon was sent for to dress the fugitive's arm, which had be- 
come increasingly painful. The surgeon probed the wound, 
but still no ball could be found. Mounting again, the two 
rode all day, and by nightfall reached Grosm^snil. Sending 
for a skilled army surgeon, the wound was probed again, but 
with no better result. Here the rumor of the affair at Saint 
Aubin, greatly magnified, reached De Bos1i.*^tiet ; and, find- 



FLIGHT TOWARD HOLLAND. 203 

~^~~~ '\~ 

ing that liis only safety lay in flight, lie started again with, 
his fi'iend, and took the route for Holland through Picardy. 
They rode onward to Belozane, then to Neufchatel, where he 
took leave of Saint-Foy. 

The fdgitive reached Foucarmont alone by moonlight in 
great pain, his arm being exceedingly swollen and much 
inflamed. He at once sent for a surgeon, who dressed the 
wound, but feared gangrene. Next morning the inflanmia- 
tion had subsided, and he set out agam, reaching the out- 
skirts of Abbeville, which he passed on the left, and, aniving 
at Ponf-de-Remy, he there crossed the Somme. He was now 
in Picardy. Pressing onward, he arrived at Prouville, where 
he was kindly entertained for the night by a Protestant 
friend, M. de Monthuc. The pain and inflammation in his 
arm still increasing, the family surgeon was sent for. The 
wound, when exposed, was found black, swollen, and angry- 
looking. The surgeon sounded again, found no ball, and con- 
cluded by recommending perfect rest and low diet. The 
patient remained with his friend for two days, during which 
M. Montcomet arrived, for the purpose of accompanying him 
in his flight into Holland. ISText day, to De Bostaquet's 
great surprise, the ball, for which the surgeons had so often 
been searching in vain, was found in the finger of one of his 
gloves, into which it had fallen. He was now comparatively 
relieved ; and, unwilling to trespass longer upon the kindness 
of his friends, after a few more days' rest he again took the 
road with his aged relative. They traveled by Le Quesnel 
and Doullens, then along the grand high road of Hesdin, and 
through the woods of the Abbey of Sercan ; next striking 
the Arras road (where they were threatened vp-ith an attack 
by footpads), they arrived at La Guorgues, and, crossing 
the frontier, they at last, after many adventures and perils, 
arrived in safety at Courtrai, where they began to breathe 
fr'eely. But Dumont did not feel himself salfe until he had 
reached Ghent, for Courtrai was still under the dominion of 
Spain; so agaL^. pushing on, the fugitives halted not until 



204 I) UMONT DE BOSTAQ UET. 

they arrived at Ghent late at night, where the two waywoni 
travelers at length slept soundly. Next day, Montcornet, 
who, though seventy-two years old, had stood the fatigues 
of the journey surprisingly well, proceeded to join his son, 
then lying with many other refugee officers in garrison at^ 
Maestricht, while De Bostaquet went forward into Holland 
to join the fugitives who were now flocking thither in great 
numbers from all parts of France. 

Such is a rapid outline of the escape of Dumont de Bosta- 
quet mto the great Protestant asylum of the North. His 
joy, however, was mingled with grief, for he had left his wife 
and family behind him in France under the heel of the perse- 
cutor. After many painful rumors of the severe punishments 
to which his children had been subjected, he was at length 
joined by his wife, his son, and one of his daughters, who suc- 
ceeded in escaping by sea. The ladies, taken prisoners by 
the coast-guard at Saint Aubin, besides being heavily fined, 
were condemned to be confined in convents, some for several 
years each, and others for life ; the gentlemen and men-serv- 
ants who accompanied them were condemned to the galleys 
for life, and their property and goods were declared forfeited 
to the Idng. This completed the ruin of Dumont de Bosta- 
quet so far as worldly wealth was concerned ; for by the law 
of Louis XIV., the property not only of all fugitives, but of 
all who abetted fugitives in their attempt to escape, was 
declared confiscated, while they were themselves liable, if 
caught, to sufier the penalty of death. 

Dumont de Bostaquet now had no home save under the 
flag of the Prince of Orange ; and when such sufferings as 
those which we have so briefly and imperfectly described are 
taken into account, we need not wonder at the ardor with 
which the banished French soldiers and gentry took service 
under the prince who so generously gave them protection, 
and the fury with which they fought against the despot who 
had ruined them, driven them forth from France, and contin- 
ued to persecute themselves and their families even to the 
death. 



CHAPTER XL 

DE BOSTAQUET LN" ENGLAND. — THE 'IRISH CAMPAIGNS OF 

1689-90. 

DuMONT DE BosTAQUET was hospitably received by the 
Prince of Orange, and, on his application for employment, 
was appointed to the same rank in the Dutch army that he 
had before held in that of Louis XIV. When the expedition 
to England was decided upon, such of the refugee officers as 
were disposed to join William were invited to send in their 
names, and De Bostaquet at once volunteered, with numbers 
more. Fifty of the French officers were selected for the pur- 
pose of being incorporated in his two dragoon regiments, red 
and blue, and De Bostaquet was appointed to a captaincy in 
the former regiment, of which De Louvigny was colonel. 

The fleet of William had already been assembled at Maas- 
luis, and with the troops on board shortly spread its sails for 
England. But the expedition, consisting of about five hund- 
red sail, had scarcely left the Dutch shores before it was dis- 
persed by a storm, which raged for three' days. One ship, 
containing two companies of French infantry, commanded by 
Captains de Chauvernay and Rapin-Thoyras (afterward the 
historian), was driven toward the coast of Noi-way. Those 
on board gave themselves up for lost ; but the storm abat- 
ing, the course of the vessel was altered, and she afterward 
reached the Maas in safety. Very few ships were missing 
when the expedition reassembled; but among the lost was 
one containing four companies of a Holstein regiment and 
some sixty French officers and volunteers. When De Bosta- 
quet's ship arrived in the Maas, it was found that many of 
the troop horses had been killed, or were so maimed as to be 



206 BE BOSTA Q UET IN ENGLAND. 

rendered unfit for service. After a few days' indefatigable 
l9,bor, liowever, all damages were made good, the fleet was 
tefitted anew, and again put to sea, tMs time with better 
prospect of success. 

"Next day," says De Bostaquet, in Ms Memoirs, "we saw the coasts of 
France and England stretching before us on either side. I confess that I 
did not look upon my ungrateful country without deep emotion, as I thought 
of the many ties of affection, which still bound me to it — of my childi*en, and 
the dear relatives I had left behind ; but as our fleet might even now be work- 
ing out theu* deliverance, and as England was drawing nearer, I felt that one 
must cast such thoughts aside, and trust that God would yet put it into the 
heart of our hero to help our poor country under the oppressions beneath 
which she was groaning. The fleet was beheld by the people on the opposite 
shores with very different emotions. France trembled at the sight ; while 
England, seeing her deliverer approaching, leaped with joy. It seemed as if 
the prince took pleasure in alarming France, whose coasts he long kept in 
sight. But at length, leaving France behind us, we made for the opposite 
shore, and all day long we held along the Enghsh coast, sailing towai-d the 
west. Night hid the land from fai-ther view, and next morning not a trace 
of it was to be seen. As the wind held good, we thought that by this time 
we must have passed out of the English Channel, though we knew not 
whither we were bound. Many of our soldiers from Poitou hoped that we 
might effect a landing there. But at three in the aftenioon we again caught 
sight of the English land on our right, and found that we were still holding 
the same com-se. M. de Bethencour, who knew the coast, assm-ed us that 
we were bound for Plymouth ; and it seemed to me that such was the prince's 
design. But the wind having shifted, we were astonished to see om* vanguard 
put about, and sail as if right down upon us. Nothing could be more beau- 
tiful than the evolution of the immense flotilla which now took place under a 
glorious sky. The main body of the fleet and the rear-guard lay to, in order 
to allow the prince's division to pass through them, on which every ship in its 
tara prepared to tack. There were no longer any doubts as to where we were 
to land. We distinctly saw the people along the heights watching, and doubt- 
less admuing, the magnificent spectacle, but there appeared to be no signs of 
alai-m at sight of the multitude of ships about to enter their beautiful bay."* 

De Bostaquet proceeds to describe the landing at Torbay, 
and the march of the little army inland, through mud and 
mire, under heavy rain and along villainous roads, until they 
entered Exeter amid the acclamations of the people. De 

* M^moires Irt^dits de Dumont de Bostaquet, p. 214:-15. 



FLIGHT OF JAMES 11. 201 

Bostaquet found that many of his exiled countrymen had al- 
ready settled at Exeter, where they had a church and minis- 
ter of their own. Among others, he met with a French tailor 
from Lintot in ]b^ormandy, who had hecome established in 
business, besides other refugees from Dieppe and the adjoin- 
ing country, who were settled and doing welL De Bosta- 
quet expressed himself much gratified with his short stay in 
Exeter, which he praised for its wealth, its commerce, its 
manufactures, and the hospitality of its inhabitants.* 

After resting six or seven days at Exeter, William and his 
army marched upon London through Salisbury, being daily 
joined by fresh adherents — gentry, officers, and soldiers. The 
army of James made no effort at resistance, but steadily re- 
tii-ed; the only show of a stand being made at Reading, 
where five hundred of the king's horse, doubtless fighting 
without heart, were put to flight by a hundred and fifty of 
William's di-agoons, led by the Huguenot Colonel Marouit. 
Not another shot was fired before William arrived in Lon- 
don, and was welcomed as the nation's deliverer. By this 
time James was making arrangements for flight, together 
with his Jesuits. He might easily have been captured and 
made a martyr of; but the mistake made in the case of 
Charles L was not repeated, and James, having got on board 
a smack in the Thames, was allowed to slink ignominiously 
out of his kingdom and take refuge in France, there to seek 
the consolation of his royal brother Louis the Great, whose 
policy he had so foolishly and so wickedly attempted to im- 
itate, f 

* While in Exeter, De Bostaquet for the first time attended the English 
service in the Cathedral, a% conducted in the time of James II. He found it 
very diiierent from the plain Calvinistic worship of the Pluguenots, and thus 
recorded his impressions of it: "What sm^piised me was to find that it 
seemed to retain neai-ly all the externals of popery. The churches have al- 
tars, two great candles at each side, and a hasin of silver or silver-gilt be- 
tween them. The canons, di-essed in surpMce and stole, occupy stalls on both 
sides of the nave. They have a choir of little boys in surplices who sing with 
them ; the music seems to me fine, and they have charming voices. But as 
all this is veiy much opposed to the simpUcity of om' Reformed religion, I 
confess I was by no means edified with it" (p. 223). 

t Little more than a. month elapsed between the landing of the Prince of 



208 DE BOSTAQUET IN ENGLAND. 

The Huguenot officers and soldiers of William's army 
found many of their exiled countrymen already settled in 
London. Soho in the west, and Spitalfields in the east were 
almost entii'ely French quarters. Numbers of new churches 
were about this time opened for the accommodation of the 
immigrants, in which the service was conducted in French 
by theu* own ministers, some of the most eminent of whom 
had taken refuge in England. The exiles formed communi- 
ties by themselves ; they were, for the most part, organized 
in congregations, and a common cause and common suffer- 
ings usually made them acquainted with each other. De 
Bostaquet and his compatriots,. therefore, did not find them- 
selves so much strangers in London as they expected to be, 
for they were daily encountering friends and brothers in mis- 
fortune. 

A distinguished little circle of exiles had by this time been 
formed at Greenwich, of which the aged Marquis de Ruvigny 
formed the centre. That nobleman had for many years been 
one of the most trusted servants of the French government. 
He held various high offices in his own country, being a gen- 
eral in the French army and a councilor of state ; and he 
had on more than one occasion represented France as envby 

Orange in Torbay and the flight of James IT. The landing took place on the 
5th of November, 1G88, and the abdication of James on the 10th of Decem- 
ber following. One of James's Jesuit followers addi-essed the following char- 
acteristic letter to his Provincial at Rome on the last-mentioned date : 

" Signor William, my reverend Father, — Behold the end of all the good 
hopes of the progress of our holy religion in this country. The king and the 
queen are fugitives ; all their adlierents have abandoned them ; a new prince 
has arrived, with a foreign araiy, without the shghtest opposition ; a thing the 
like of which has never been seen or heard of, and which is without example 
in history. A king, the peaceful possessor of his throne, with an anny of 
thirty thousand soldiers and forty ships of wai*, "is fljang from his kingdom 
without firing so much as a pistol-shot. . . . The greatest evil has coviefrovi 
ourselves: our imprudence, our avarice, and our ambition, have occasioned 
all this. The king is served by weak men, knaves and fools, and the gi-eat 
minister you have sent hither has had his share in it. . . . Enough, my dear 
friend ; all is over. . . . The confusion is great ; neither faith nor hope re- 
main ; we are done for this time, and the fathers of our holy society have con- 
tributed their part toward the disaster. All the others — bisliops, confessors, 
priests, and monks — have conducted themselves with but little pnidence. " 

This letter (in Italian) is quoted by M. Guizot in his Collection des Memoirs 
relatifs a la Revolution d Angletcfrre. 



THE MARQUIS DE RUVIGNY. 209 

at the English court. But he was a Protestant, and there- 
fore precluded fi*om holding public office subsequent to the 
Revocation of the Edict of Kantes. " Had the marquis," 
says Macaulay, "chosen to remain in his native country, 
he and his household would have been permitted to worship 
God privately according to theii* own forms. But E-uvigny 
rejected all offers, cast in his lot with his brethren, and, at up- 
ward of eighty years of age, quitted Versailles, where he 
might still have been a favorite, for a modest dwelling at 
Greenwich. That dwelling was, during the last months of 
his life, the resort of all that was most distinguished among 
his fellow-exiles. His abilities, his experience, and his munif- 
icent kindness made him the undisputed chief of the refugees. 
He was at the same time half an Englishman, for his sister 
had been Countess of Southampton, and he was uncle of Lady 
Russell. He was long past the time of action. But his two 
sons, both men of eminent courage, devoted their swords to 
the service of William."* 

A French church had been founded by the Marquis of Ru- 
vigny at Greenwich in 16S6,f of which M. Severin, an old and 
valued friend of De Bostaquet and his wife, had been appoint- 
ed pastor, so that our Huguenot officer at once found himself 
at home. He was cordially received by the aged marquis, 
who encouraged him to bring over his family from Holland 
and settle them in the place. De Bostaquet accordingly pro- 
ceeded to the Hague in the spring of 1689, and was received 
with great joy by his wife after their five months' separation- 
Accompanied by their two children, they set out for England, 
and, after a tempestuous voyage, landed at Greenwich, where 
they were cordially welcomed by the Ruvigny circle. Here 
De Bostaquet remained for only three months, enjoying the 
society of his family and the hospitality of his friends. " The 

* Macaulay — History of England, vol. iii., ch. xiv. 

t The French chapel.at Greenwich is still in existence, and now used as a 
Baptist chapel. It is sitnated in London Street, behind the shop of Mi*. 
Harding, oihnan. The commandments were written up in French on each 
side of the pulpit until the yeai- 1814, when they were effaced. 

o 



210 DE BOSTAQUET IN ENGLAND. 

time," says he, " passed like a dream, as mnch because of the 
joy I experienced at being reunited to my wife, as because 
of the beauties of the place and the good society I met there, 
but, above all, by the kindness of the Ruvigny family, whose 
generosity and charity toward the unfortunate exiles is un- 
failing, and command the respect and veneration of all who 
have the honor to know them."* 

During de Bostaquet's sojourn at Greenwich his wife pre- 
sented him with another son, his nineteenth child, to which 
the Marquis de Ruvigny stood godfather, and after whom he 
was named. Only a month later the good old marquis died, 
andDe Bostaquet, with many other illustrious exiles, followed 
his remains to his tomb in the church of the Savoy, in the 
Strand, where he was buried. 

Meanwhile William had been occupied in consolidating his 
government and reducing the disaffected parts of the king- 
dom to obedience. With Scotland this was comparatively 
easy, but with Ireland the case was widely different. The 
Irish Roman Catholics remained loyal to James because of 
his religion, and when he landed at Kin sale in March, 1689, 
he saw nearly the whole country at his feet. Only the little 
Presbyterian colony established in Ulster made any show of 
resistance. James had arrived in Ireland with substantial 
help in arms and money obtained from the French king, and 
before many weeks had elapsed 40,000 Irish stood in arms to 
support his authority. The forces of William in Ireland were 
few in number and bad in quality, consisting, for the most 
part, of raw levies of young men suddenly taken from the 
plow. They were therefore altogether unequal to cope with 
the forces of James, Tyrconnel, and the French Marshal de 
Rosen, and, but for vigorous measures on the part of William 
and his government, it was clear that Ireland was lost to the 
English crown. 

The best troops of William had by this time been either 
sent abroad or disbanded. The English and Dutch veteran 

* M^moires In^dits, p. 246. 



THE HUGUENOTS AT CARBJCKFERGVS. 211 

regiments had for the most part been dispatched to Flanders 
to resist the French armies of Louis, who threatened a diver- 
sion in favor of James in that quarter ; while, in deference to 
the jealousy which the English people naturally entertained 
against the maintenance among them of a standing army — 
especially an army of foreigners — the Huguenot regiments 
had been disbanded almost immediately after the abdication 
of James and his flight into France. So soon, however, as 
the news of James's landing in Ireland reached London, meas- 
ures were immediately taken for their re-embodiment, and 
four excellent regiments were at once raised — one of cavalry 
and three of infantry. The cavalry regiment was raised by 
Schomberg, who was its colonel, and it was entirely com- 
posed of French gentlemen — oflScers and privates. The in- 
fantry regiments were raised with the help of the aged Mar- 
quis de Ruvigny; and at his death in July, 1689, the enter- 
prise was zealously prosecuted by his two sons^ — Henry, the 
second marquis, and Pierre de Ruvigny, afterward better 
known as La Caillemotte. These regiments were respective- 
ly commanded by La Caillemotte, Cambon, and La Melo- 
ni^re. 

The French regiments were hastily dispatched to join the 
little army of about 10,000 men sent into the north ofL-e- 
land to assist the Protestants in arms there the same month 
in which they were raised. Their first operation was con- 
ducted against the town of Carrickfergus, which fell after a 
siege of a week, but not without loss, for the Huguenot regi- 
ments who led the assault suffered heavily, the Marquis de 
Yenours and numerous other officers being among the killed. 

Shortly after, the Huguenot regiment of cavalry arrived 
from England, and, joined by three regiments of Enniskil- 
leners, the army marched southward. De Bostaquet held his 
former rank of captain in Schomberg's horse, and he has re- 
corded in his memoirs the incidents of the campaign with his 
usual spirit. The march lay through burnt villages and a 
country desolated by the retiring army of James. They 



212 DE BOSTAQUET IN ENGLAND. 

passed through Newry and Carlmgford, both of which were 
found in ashes, and at length arrived in the neighborhood of 
Dundalk, where they encamped. James lay at Drogheda 
with an army of 20,000 men, or double their number. But 
the generals of neither force wished for battle — Schomberg, 
because he could not rely upon his troops, who were ill fed 
and (excepting the Huguenot veterans) ill disciplined, and 
Count Rosen, James's French general, because he did not 
wish to incur the risk of a defeat. The raw young English 
soldiers* in the camp at Dundalk, unused to campaigning, 
died in great numbers. The English foot were mostly with- 
out shoes and very badly fed ; yet they were eager to fight, 
thinking it better to die in the field than in the camp. 
When they clamored to be led into action, Schomberg good- 
humoredly said, " We English have stomach enough for fight- 
ing ; it is a pity that we are not equally fond of some other 
parts of a soldier's business." 

At length, after enduring great privations, and leaving 
many of his men under the sod at Dundalk,f Schomberg de- 
cided to follow the example of the Jacobite army, and go 

* Schomberg found that the greater number, of them had never before fired 
a gun. " Others can mform your majesty," he wrote to William (12th Oct., 
1689), " that the three regiments of French infantry and their regiment of 
cavahy do their duty better than the others." And a few months later he 
added, " From these three regiments, and from that of cavalry, your majesty 
has more service than from double the number of the others." 

t " Our camp was on the edge of a morass," says De Bostaquet, " shelter- 
ed on one side by horrible mountains, from whence there arose a perpetual 
vapor as from a furnace. The scarcity of provisions, together with the bad 
weather, occasioned frightful disease. The English died by thousands." 
[It is stated in the Memoirs of Dalrymple, that of 1.5,000 men who at differ- 
ent times joined the camp, 800O died.] "The colonels, captains, and sol- 
diers of the French regiments did not escape. Many officers and privates 
died. A friend and relative of my own, named Bonel, son of Fi-esne-Cant- 
brun, of Caen, whose mother, daughter of Secretary Cognart, was a kinsman 
of my first wife, died, much to my sorrow. Our regiment was attacked by 
disease. Captain de Brugibre and Comet Baucelin both died ; the loss of 
the latter, who was betrothed to a beautiful Norman girl, occasioned many 
tears. Des Saint-Hertnine and Brasselaye, though they had only been a 
short time in camp, both left iU. The first died at Chester, and the other 
almost immediately on his reaching Windsor. In short, there remained in 
the camp only the dead and the dying." — Mcmoires In€dits de Dumont de 
Bostaquet, p. 260-1. 



RECRUITING IN SWITZERLAND. 213 

into winter quarters. His conduct of the campaign occa- 
sioned much dissatisfaction in England, where it was expect- 
ed that he should meet and fight James with a famished 
army of less than half the number, and under every disad- 
vantage. It had now, however, become necessary to act 
with vigor if the policy initiated by the Revolution of 1688 
was to be upheld; for a well-appointed army of 7300 excel- 
lent French infantry, commanded by the Count of Lauzun, 
with immense quantities of arms and ammunition, were on 
their way from France, with the object of expelling the 
Protestants from Ireland and replacing James upon the Brit- 
ish throne. 

William felt that this was the great crisis of the struggle, 
and he determined to take the field in person. He at once 
made his arrangements accordingly. He ordered back from 
Flanders his best English and Dutch regiments. He also en- 
deavored, so far as he could, to meet Frenchmen by French- 
men; and dispatched agents abroad, into all the countries 
where the banished Huguenot soldiers had settled, inviting 
them to take arms with him against the enemies of theii' 
faith. His invitation was responded to with alacrity. Many 
of Schomberg's old soldiers, who had settled in Brandenburg, 
Switzerland, and the provinces of the Lower Hhine, left their 
new homes and flocked to the standard of William. The 
Baron d'Avejan, lieutenant colonel of an English regiment, 
wrote to a fi.iend in Switzerland, urging the immediate enlist- 
ment of expatriated Protestants for his regiment. " I feel 
assured," said he, " that you will not fail to have published 
in all the French churches in Switzerland the obligations un- 
der which the refugees lie to come and aid us in this expedi- 
tion, which is directed to the glory of God, and ultimately to 
the re-establishment of His church in our country."* 

These stirring appeals had the effect of attracting a large 
number of veteran Protestant soldiers to the army of Wil- 

* Quoted by Weiss — History of the French Protestant Refugees^ p. 238, 
from an unpublished memoir by Anthony Court, in the Geneva Libraiy. 



214 BE BOSTAQUET IN ENGLAND. 

liam. Sometimes four or five hundred men left Geneva in a 
week for the purpose of enlisting in England. Others were 
dispatched from Lausanne, where they were provided by the 
Marquis d'Arzilliers with the means of reaching their desti- 
nation. Many more, scattered along the shores of Lake Le- 
man, were drilled daily under the flag of Orange, notwith- 
standing the expostulations of Louis's agents, and sent to 
swell the forces of Wilham. 

By these means, as well as by energetic efforts at home,* 
William was enabled, by the month of June, 1690, to assem- 
ble in the north of L'eland an army of 36,000 men — English, 
French, Dutch, Danes, and Germans ; and putting himself at 
their head, he at once marched southward, f Arrived at the 
Boyne, about three miles west of Drogheda, he discerned the 
combined French and Lish army drawn up on the other side, 
prepared to dispute the passage of the river. The Huguenot 
regiments saw before them the flags of Louis XIV. and 
James EL waving together — the army of the king who had 
banished them from country, home, and family, making com- 
mon cause with the persecutor of the English Protestants ; 
and when it became known among them that every soldier 
in the opposing force bore the same badge — the white cross 
in their hat — which had distinguished the assassins of their 
forefathers on the night of St. Bartholomew, they burned to 
meet them in battle. 

On the morning of the 1st of July, the Count Menard de 

* De Felice — History of the French Protestants (p. 3n9), says that " En- 
gland raised eleven regiments of French volunteers;" but he does not give 
his authority. It is probable this number is an exaggeration. 

t William landed at Canickfergus on the 14th of June, 1690. From 
thence he proceeded to Belfast. On his way southward to join the army at 
Loughbricidand, when passing through the village of Lambeg, near Lisburn, 
he was addressed by one Rene Buhner, a Huguenot refugee, then residing in 
a house now known as The Prioiy. Rene explained to his majesty the cause 
of his being settled there ; and as the king was about to pass on, he asked 
permission to embrace him. To tliis William at once assented, receiving the 
Huguenot's salute on his cheek, after which, stooping from his horse towai-d 
Bulmer's wife, a pretty Frenchwoman, he said, "And thy wife too;" and 
saluted her heartily. The name Buhner has since been changed to Boomer, 
but the Christian name Rene or Rainey is still preserved among the descend- 
ants of the family. — Ulster Journal of ArchcBology, i., 135, 286-94. 



BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 215 

Schomberg, one of the old marshal's sons, was ordered to 
cross the river on the right by the bridge of Slane, and turn 
the left flank of the opposing army. This movement he suc- 
ceeded in accomplishing after a sharp but short conflict, upon 
which William proceeded to lead his left, composed of cav- 
alry, across the river, considerably lower down. At the same 
time, the main body of infantry composing the centre was 
ordered to advance. The Dutch guards led, closely followed 
by the Huguenot foot. Plunging into the stream, they waded 
across, and reached the opposite bank under a storm of can- 
non and musketry. Scarcely had they stmggled up the right 
bank, than the Huguenot colonel. La Caillemotte, was struck 
down by a musket -shot. As he was being carried off the 
field, covered with blood, through the ranks of his advancing 
men, he called out to them, " A la glou-e, mes enfans ! a la 
gloire !" 

A strong body of L-ish cavalry charged the advancing in- 
fantry with great vigor, shook them until they reeled, and 
compelled them to give way. Old Marshal Schomberg, who 
stood eagerly watching the advance of his troops from the 
northern bank, now saw that the crisis of the fight had ar- 
rived, and he prepared to act accordingly. Placing himself 
at the head of his Huguenot regiment of horse which he had 
held in reserve, and pointing with his sword across the river, 
he called out, " AUons, ones amis ! rappelez votre courage et 
vos ressentements : voila vos peesecutetjes !"* and plunged 
into the stream. On reaching the scene of contest a furious 
struggle ensued. The Dutch and Huguenot infantry rallied ; 
and William, coming up from the left with his cavalry, fell 
upon the Irish flank and completed their discomfiture. The 
combined French and Irish ai-my was forced through the pass 
of Duleek, and fled toward Dublin — James H. being the first 
to carry thither the news of his defeat-f William's loss did 

* Rapin, who relates this incident in his Historj/ of England, was present 
at the battle of the Boyne as an officer in one of the Huguenot regiments. 

t On reaching Dublin Castle, James was received by Lady Tyrconnel, the 
wife of his viceroy. " Madame," said he, "your countrymen can run weU." 



216 BE BOSTAQUET IN ENGLAND. 

not exceed 400 men ; but, to Ms deep grief, Marshal Schom- 
berg was among tbe fallen, the hero of eighty-two having 
been cut down in the melee by a party of Tyrconnel's horse, 
and he lay dead upon the field, with many other gallant gen- 
tlemen. 

"Not quite so well as youi- majesty," was liei* retort, " for I see you have won 
the race." 



CHAPTER XTL 

HUGUENOT OFFICEKS IN THE BRITISH SEBYICE. 

It forms no part of our purpose to describe the railitary 
operations in Ireland whidi followed the battle of the Boyne 
farther than to designate the principal Huguenot officers 
who took part in them. Among these, one of the most dis- 
tinguished was Henry, second Marquis de Ruvigny. At the 
date of the Revocation he had attained the rank of brigadier 
in the army of Louis XIV., and was esteemed an excellent 
officer, having served with great distinction under Conde and 
Turenne. Indeed, it is believed that the French army in 
Germany would have been lost but for the skill with which 
he reconciled the quarrels of the contending chiefs who as- 
pired to its command on the death of Turenne. Louis XIV. 
anxiously desired to retain Ruvigny in his service, but all his 
offers of individual toleration were refused, and, castmg in his 
lot with the exiled Protestants, he left France with his father 
and settled with him at Greenwich, dispensing hospitality and 
bounty. Being allowed the enjoyment of his French proper- 
ty, he did not join the British army which fought in Ireland. 
But when he heard that his only brother, De la Caillemotte, 
as well as Marshal Schomberg, had been killed at the Boyne, 
he could restrain his ardor no longer, and offered his services 
to King William, who appointed him major general, and far- 
ther gave him the colonelcy of Schomberg's regiment of Hu- 
guenot horse. 

Ruvigny immediately joined the army of General Ginkell 
in Ireland, while engaged in the siege of Athlone. There a 
Huguenot soldier was the first to mount the breach, in which 
he fell, cheering on his comrades. That place taken, the 
French general Saint Ruth retired with the Irish army to 



218 THE HUGUENOT OFFICERS. 

Aughrim, where he took up an almost impregnable position. 
Notwithstanding this advantage, Ginkell attacked and rout- 
ed the L'ish, the principal share in the victory being attrib- 
uted to the Marquis de Ruvigny and his horse, who charged 
impetuously and carried every thing before them. That the 
brunt of the battle was borne by the Huguenot regiments is 
shown by the extent of their loss. Ruvigny 's regiment lost 
144 men killed and wounded; that of Cambon,106 ; and that 
of Belcastle, 85 — being about one fifth of the total loss on 
the side of the victors. "After the battle,", says De Bosta- 
quet, " Ginkell came up and embraced De Ruvigny, declaring 
how much he was pleased with his bravery and his conduct ; 
then advancing to the head of our regiment, he highly praised 
the officers as well as soldiers. M. Casaubon, who com- 
manded, gained great honor by his valor that day."* For 
the services rendered by De Ruvigny on this occasion, Wil- 
liam raised him to the Irish peerage under the title of Earl 
of Gal way. 

In 1693 Lord Gal way joined William in Flanders, and was. 
with him in the severe battle of Neerwinden, where the com- 
bined Dutch and English army was defeated by Marshal 
Luxemburg. The Huguenot leader fought with conspicuous 
bravery at the head of his cavalry, and succeeded in covering 
William's retreat. He was shortly after promoted to the 
rank of lieutenant general. 

The war with France was now raging all round her bor- 
ders — along the Flemish and the German frontiers, and as far 
south as the country of the Vaudois. The Vaudois were 
among the most ancient Protestant people in Europe ; and 
Louis XrV., not satisfied with exterminating Protestantism 
in his own dominions, sought to carry the crusade against it 
beyond his own frontiers into the territories of his neighbors. 
He accordingly sent to the young Duke of Savoy, requiring 
him to extirpate the Vaudois unless they would conform to 
the Roman Catholic religion. The duke refused to obey the 

* M^moires In^dits de Dumont de Bostaquet, p. 303. 



THE EARL OF GAL WAY. 219 

French king's behest, and besought the help of the Emperor 
of Germany and the Protestant princes of the ]b>rorth to en- 
able him to resist the armies of Louis. The Elector of Bran- 
denburg having applied to William for one of his generals, 
Charles, duke of Schomberg, whose father fell at the Boyne, 
was at once dispatched to the aid of the Savoy prince with 
an army consisting for the most part of Huguenot refugees. 
WUliam also undertook to supply a subsidy of £100,000 a 
year as the joint contribution of England and Holland to the 
cause of Protestantism in Savoy. 

Schomberg, on his arrival at Turin, found the country hi a 
state of the greatest consternation, the French army under 
Catinat overrunning it in all directions. With his vigorous 
help, however, the progress of the French army was speedily 
checked ; but, unfortunately, Schomberg allowed himself to 
be drawn into a pitched battle on the plains of Marsiglia in 
October, 1693, in which he suffered a complete defeat, at the 
same time receiving a mortal wound, of which he died a few 
days after the battle. 

On this untoward result of the campaign being known in 
England, the Earl of Galway was dispatched into Savoy to 
take the command, as well as to represent England and Hol- 
land as embassador at the court of Turin. To his dismay, he 
shortly discovered that the Duke of Savoy was engaged in a 
secret treaty with the French government for peace, on whicli 
Lord Galway at once withdrew with his contingent, the only 
object he had been able to accomplish being to secure a cei-- 
tain degree of liberty of worship for the persecuted Vaudois. 

On his return to England the earl was appointed one of 
the Lords Justices of L-eland ; and during the time that he 
held the office, he devoted himself to the establishment of the 
linen trade, the improvement of agriculture, and the repara- 
tion of the losses and devastations from which the country 
had so severely suffered during its civil wars. Among his 
other undertakings was the founding of the French colony of 
Portarlington. By his influence he induced a large number 



THE HUGUENOT OFFICERS. 



of the best class of the refugees — principally consisting of ex- 
iled officers and gentry and their families — to settle at that 
place; and he liberally assisted them out of his private 
means in promoting the industry and prosperity of the town 
and neighborhood. He erected above a hundred new dwell- 
ings of a superior kind for the accommodation of the set- 
tlers. He built and endowed two churches for their use — 
one French, the other English — as well as two excellent 
schools for the education of their children. Thus the little 
town of Portarlington shortly became a centre of polite learn- 
ing, from which emanated some of the most distinguished 
men in Ireland, while the gentle and industrious life of the 
colonists exhibited an example of patient labor, neatness, 
thrift, and orderliness, which was not without beneficial ef- 
fects on the surrounding population. 

But, much though he did for Portarlington, Lord Galway 
was not permitted to complete what he had so well begun. 
It so happened that as soon as Louis XIY. heard that Ruvig- 
ny had joined the anny of William, he ordered the immediate 
confiscation of all his property in France. To compensate his 
devoted follower for his loss, William conferred upon him the 
confiscated estate of Portarlington. This appropriation by 
the king was, however, violently attacked in the English Par- 
liament ; a bill was passed ^annulling all grants of the kind 
that he had made ; the Earl of Galway's career as an Irish 
landlord was thus brought to an end; and Ruvigny, like 
many of his fellow-exiles, was again landless. 

Nothing, however, could shake the king's attachment to 
Lord Galway, or Lord Galway's to him. Being unable, as 
King of England, to reward his faithful follower, William ap- 
pointed him general in the Dutch army, and colonel of the 
Dutch regiment of Foot-guards (blue). In 1 701, Evelyn thus 
records in his diary a visit made to the distinguished refugee 
on his arrival in London from Ireland: ^'' June 22. I went to 
congratulate the arrival of that worthy and excellent person, 
my Lord Galway, newly come out of Ireland, where he had 



CAMPAIGN IN SPAIN. 221 

behaved himself so honestly and to the exceeding satisfac- 
tion of the people ; but he was removed thence for being a 
Frenchman, though they had not a more worthy, valiant, dis- 
creet, and trusty person on whom they could have relied for 
conduct and fitness. He was one who had deeply suffered, 
as well as the marquis his father, for being Protestants." 

From this time Lord Galway was principally employed 
abroad on diplomatic missions and in the field. The war 
against France was now in progress on the side of Spain, 
where the third Duke of Schomberg, Count Menard, who led 
the attack in the battle of the Boyne, was in 1704 placed in 
command of the British troops in Spain, then fighting against 
the Bourbon Philip V., in conjunction with a Portuguese ar- 
my. Philip was supported by a French army under command 
of the Duke of Berwick, the natural son of the dethroned 
James 11. The campaign languished under Schomberg, and 
the government at home becoming dissatisfied with his con- 
duct of it, the Earl of Galway was sent out to Portugal to 
take the command. 

The campaigns which followed were mostly fought over 
the ground since made so famous by the victories of Wel- 
lington. There was the relief of Gibraltar, the storming of 
Alcantara, the siege of Badajos — in which the Earl of Galway 
lost an arm — the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, and the ad- 
vance upon Madrid. Then followed the defection of the 
Portuguese, and a succession of disasters ; the last of which 
was the battle of Almanza, where the British, ill supported 
by their Portuguese allies, were defeated by the French army 
under the Duke of Berwick. Shortly after, the British forces 
returned home, and the Earl of Galway resided for the rest 
of his life mostly at Rookley, near Southampton, taking a 
kindly interest to the last in the relief of his countrymen suf- 
fering for conscience' sake.* 



* It was when on a visit at Stratton House that the good Earl of Galway 
was summoned to his rest. He probably sank under the "bodily pains" to 
which he was so long subject, namely, gout and rheumatism. His mind was 



222 THE HUGUENOT OFFICERS. 

When the refugees first entered tlie service of the Elector 
of Brandenburg, doubts were expressed whether they would 
fight against theii* former fellow-soldiers. When they went 
into action at Neuss, one of the Prussian generals exclaimed, 
"We shall have these knaves fighting agaiast us presently." 
But all doubts were dispelled by the conduct of the Hugue- 
not musketeers, who rushed eagerly upon the French troops, 
and by the fury of then* attack carried every thing before 
them. It was the same at the siege of Bonn, where a hund- 
red refugee officers, three hundred Huguenot cadets, with 
detachments of musketeers and horse grenadiers, demanded 
to be led to the assault ; and on the signal being given, they 
rushed forward with extraordinary gallantry. "The offi- 
cers," says Ancillon, " gave proof that they preferred rather 
to rot in the -earth after an honorable death, than that the 
earth should nourish them in idleness while their soldiers 
were in the heat of the fight." The outer works were car- 
ried, and the place was taken. But nowhere did the Hugue- 
nots display such a fury of resentment against the troops of 
Louis as at the battle of Almanza, above referred to, where 
they were led by Cavalier, the famous Camizard chief. 

Jean Cavalier was the son of a peasant, of the village of 
Ribaute, near Anduze, in Languedoc. Being an ardent Prot- 
estant, he took refuge from the persecutions in Geneva and 
Lausanne, where he worked for some time as a journeyman 
baker. But his love for his native home drew him back to 
Languedoc; and he happened to visit it in 1^02, at the time 
when the Abbe du Chayla was engaged in directing the ex- 
tirpation of the Protestant peasantry in the Cevennes. These 
poor people continued, in defiance of the law, to hold relig- 
ious meetings in the woods, and caves, and fields, in conse- 

entire to the last. He died on the 3d of September, 1720, aged seventy-two. 
He was the last of his family. Lady RusseU was his nearest surviving rela- 
tive, and became his heiress at the age of eighty-four. The property of Strat- 
ton has passed out of Russell hands ,• and Lord Galway's grave-stone [in Mich- 
eldever church-yard, where he was buried] can not now be recognized. — Ag- 
NEW — Protestant Exiles from France in the reign of Louis XI V., p. 149. 



JEAN CAVALIER. 223 



quence of which they were tracked, pursued, sabred, hanged, 
or sent to the galleys, wherever found. 

The peasants at length revolted. From forty to fifty of 
the most determined among them assembled at the Abbe du 
Chayla's house at Pont-de-Montvef t, and proceeded to break 
open the dungeon in which he had penned up a band of pris- 
oners, among whom were two ladies of rank. The abbe or- 
dered his servants to repel the assailants with fire-arms ; nev- 
ertheless they succeeded in efiecting an entrance, and stabbed 
the priest to death. Such was the beginning of the war of 
the Blouses, or Camizards. The Camizards were only poor 
peasants driven to desperation by cruelty, without any 
knowledge of war, and without any arms except such as 
they wrested from the hands of their enemies, yet they main- 
tained a gallant struggle against the French armies for a pe- 
riod of nearly five years. 

On the outbreak of the revolt, Jean Cavalier assembled a 
company of volunteers to assist the Cevennes peasantry, and 
before long he became their recognized leader. Though the 
insurrection spread over Languedoc, their entire numbers did 
not exceed 10,000 men. But they had the advantage of fight- 
ing in a mountain country, every foot of which was familiar 
to them. They carried on the war by surprises, clothing and 
arming themselves with the spoils they took from the royal 
troops. They supplied themselves with balls made from the 
church-bells. They had no money, and needed none, the 
peasantry and herdsmen of the country supplying them with 
food. When they were attacked, they received the first fire 
of the soldiers on one knee, singing the sixty-eighth psalm : 
" Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered." Then they 
rose, precipitated themselves on the enemy, and fought with 
all the fuiy of despair. If they succeeded in their onslaughts, 
and the soldiers fled, they then held assemblies, which were 
attended by the Huguenots of the adjoining country; and 
when they failed, they fled into the hills, in the caverns of 
which were their magazines and hospitals. 



224 TEE HUGUENOT OFFICERS. 

Great devastation and bloodshed marked the course of the 
war of the Camizards. ISTo mercy was shown either to the 
peasantry taken in arms or to those who in any way assisted 
them. Whole villages were destroyed; for the order was 
issued that wherever a S9ldier or priest perished, the place 
should immediately be burned down. The punishment of 
the stake was revived. Gibbets were erected and kept at 
work all over Languedoc. Still the insurrection was not 
suppressed, and the peasantry continued to hold their relig- 
ious meetings wherever they could. One day, on the first 
of April, 1703, the intelligence was brought to Marshal Mont- 
revil, in command of the royal troops, that some three hund- 
red persons had assembled for worship in a mill near !N"is- 
mes. He at once hastened to the place with a strong force 
of soldiers, ordered the doors to be burst open, and the 
worshipers against law slaughtered on the spot. The slow- 
ness with which the butchery was carried on provoked the 
marshal's indignation, and he ordered the mill to be fired. 
All who had not been murdered were burnt — all, excepting 
one solitary girl, who was saved through the humanity of 
the marshal's lackey ; but she was hanged next day, and her 
salvor narrowly escaped the same fate. 

Even this monstrous cruelty did not crush the insurrec- 
tion. The Camizards were from time to time re-enforced by 
the burned-out peasants ; and, led by Cavalier and his coad- 
jutor Roland, they beat the detachments of Montrevil on ev- 
ery side — at iTayes, at the rocks of Aubais, at Martignargues, 
and at the Bridge of Salindres. The " Most Christian King" 
was disgusted at the idea of a Marshal of France, supported 
by a royal army completely appointed, being set at defiance 
by a miserable horde of Protestant peasants, and he ordered 
the recall of Montrevil. Then Marshal Yillars was sent to 
take the command. 

The new marshal was an honorable man, and no butcher. 
He shuddered at the idea of employing means such as his 
predecessor had employed to reduce the king's subjects to 



JEAN CAVALIER, 225 



obedience, and one of the first things he did was to invite 
Cavalier to negotiate. The quondam baker's boy of Geneva 
agreed to meet the potent Marshal of France and listen to 
his proposals. Yillars thus described him in his letter to the 
minister of war: *'He is a peasant of the lowest rank, not yet 
twenty-two years of age, and scarcely seeming eighteen; 
small, and with no imposing mien, but possessing a firmness 
and good sense that are altogether surprising. He has great 
talent m arranging for the subsistence of his men, and dis- 
poses his troops as well as the best trained officers could do. 
From the moment Cavalier began to treat up to the conclu- 
sion, he has always acted in good faith." 

In the negotiations which ensued, Cavalier stipulated for 
liberty of conscience and freedom of worship, to which, it is 
said, Yillars assented, though the Roman Catholics subse- 
quently denied this. The result, however, was, that Cavalier 
capitulated, accepted a colonel's commission, and went to 
Versailles to meet Louis XTV. ; his fellow-leader, Roland, re- 
fusing the terms of capitulation, and determining to continue 
the struggle. At Paris, the mob, eager to behold the Ceven- 
nol rebel, thronged the streets he rode through, and his re- 
ception was almost tantamount to a triumph. At Versailles 
Louis exhorted him in vain to be converted, Cavalier even 
daring in his presence to justify the revolt in the Cevennes. 
He was offered the rank of major general in the French army, 
and a pension of 1500 livres for his father as the price of his 
apostasy ; but still he refused ; and he was dismissed from 
court as " an obstinate Huguenot." 

Though treated with apparent kindness, Cavalier felt that 
he was under constant surveiQance, and he seized the earli- 
est opportunity of flying from France and taking refuge in 
Switzerland. From thence he passed into Holland, and en- 
tered the service of "William of Orange, who gave him the 
rank of colonel The Blouses, or Camizards, who had fled 
from the Cevennes in large numbers, flocked to his standard, 
and his regiment was soon'fulL But a difficulty arose. Cav- 

P 



226 THE HUGUENOT OFFICERS. 

alier insisted on selecting his own officers, wliile the royal 
commissioners required that all the companies should he 
commanded by refugee gentlemen. The matter was com- 
promised by Cavaher selecting half his officers, and the com- 
missioners appointing the other half— Cavalier selecting only 
such as had thoroughly proved their valor in the battles of 
the Cevennes. The regiment, when complete, proceeded to 
England, and was dispatched to Spain with other re-enforce- 
ments at the end of 1 706. 

Almost the only battle in which Cavalier and his Hugue- 
nots took part was on the field of Almanza, where they dis- 
tinguished themselves in a remarkable degree. Cavalier 
found himself opposed to one of the French regiments, in 
whom he recognized his former persecutors in the Cevennes. 
The soldiers on both sides, animated by a common fury, 
rushed upon each other with the bayonet, disdaining to fire. 
The carnage which followed was dreadful. The papist regi- 
ment was annihilated, while of Cavalier's regiment, 700 
strong, not more than 300 survived. Marshal Berwick, 
though familiar with fierce encounters, never spoke of this 
tragical event without deep emotion.* Cavalier himself was 
severely wounded, and lay for some time among the slain, 
afterward escaping through the assistance of an English offi- 
cer. His lieutenant colonel, five captains, six lieutenants, and 
five ensigns, were killed, and most of the other officers were 
wounded or taken prisoners. 

Cavalier returned to England, where he retired upon a 
small pension, which barely supported him, and he fell into 
debt.f He entreated to be employed in active service, but 
it was not until after the lapse of many years that his appli- 
cation was successful. He was eventually apj)ointed gov- 
ernor of Jersey, and held that office for some time; after 

* Weiss, p. .250. 

t While lie resided in London, Cavalier employed part of his leisure in dic- 
tating to another, refugee, Galli of Nismes, the memoirs of his early adven- 
tures, which were puhlished under the title oi Memoirs of the Wars of the 
Cevennes : London, 1726. 



RAPIN-THOYRAS. 227 



wHcti he was made brigadier in 1735, and farther promoted 
to be major general in 1739. He died at Chelsea in the fol- 
lowing year, and his remains were conveyed to Dublin for 
interment in the French refugee cemetery near that city. 

Another illustrious name among the Huguenot refugees is 
that of Paul de Rapin-Thoyras, better known as the historian 
of England than as a soldier, though he bore arms with the 
English in many a hard-fought field. He belonged to a 
French noble family, and was Lord of Thoyras, near Castres. 
The persecution drove him and his family into England; but, 
finding nothing to do there, he went over to Holland, and join- 
ed the army of William as a cadet. He accompanied the ex- 
pedition to Torbay, and took part m the transactions which 
followed. Rapin was afterward sent into Ireland with his reg- 
iment, and, distinguishing himself by his gallantry at the siege 
of Carrickfergus, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. 
He afterward fought at the Boyne, and was wounded at the 
assault of Limerick. At Athlone he was one of the first to 
enter the place at the head of the assailing force. He was 
there promoted to a company, and remained at Athlone, do- 
ing garrison duty, for about two years. His intelligence and 
high culture being known, Rapin was selected by the kiog, 
on the recommendation of the Earl of Gal way, as tutor to 
the Earl of Portland's eldest son, Yiscount Woodstock. He 
accordingly took leave of the army with regret, making over 
his company to his brother, who afterward attained the rank 
of lieutenant colonel. From this time Rapin lived principal- 
ly abroad in company with his pupil. While residing at the 
Hague, he resumed his favorite study of history andjurispra- 
dence, which had been interrupted by his flight from France 
at the Revocation. After completing Lord Woodstock's ed- 
ucation, Rapin settled at Wesel, where a number of retired 
refugee officers resided, and formed a very agreeable society. 
There he wrote his Dissertation on Whigs and Tories, and 
his well-known History of England, founded on Rhymer's 
Foedera, a work of much labor and research, and long regard- 
ed as a standard work. Rapin died La 1725, at the age of 



THE HUGUENOT OFFICERS. 



sixty-four, almost pen in hand, worn out Iby hard study and 
sedentary confinement. 

Among the many ahle Huguenot officers in William's serv- 
ice, John de Bodt was one of the most distinguished. He had 
fled from France when only in his fifteenth year, and shortly 
after joined the Dutch artillery. He accompanied William 
to England, and was made captain in 1690. He fought at 
the Boyne and at Aughrim, and eventually rose to the com- 
mand of the French corps of engineers. In that capacity he 
served at the battles of Steinkirk and Nerwinde, and at the 
siege of Namur he directed the operations which ended in 
the surrender of the castle to the allied army. The fort into 
which BoufiSers had thrown himself was assaulted and cap- 
tured a few days later by La Cave at the head of 2000 vol- 
unteers, and William HL generously acknowledged that it 
was mainly to the brave refugees that he owed the capture 
of that important fortress. 

All through the wars in the Low Countries, under William 
HL, Eugene, and the Duke of Marlborough, the refugees bore 
themselves bravely. Wherever the fighting was hardest, they 
were there. Henry de Chesnoi led the assault which gave 
Landau to the allies. At the battles of Hochstedt, Oude- 
narde, Malplaquet, and at the siege of Mons, they were con- 
spicuous for their valor. Le Roche, the Huguenot engineer, 
conducted the operations at Lisle, " doing more execution," 
says Luttrell, " in three days, than De Meer, the German, in 
six weeks." 

The refugee Ligoniers served with peculiar distinction in 
the British army. The most eminent was Jean Louis, after- 
ward Field Marshal Earl Ligonier, who fled from France into 
England in 1697. He accompanied the army to Flanders as 
a volunteer in 1702, where his extraordinary bravery at the 
storming of Liege attracted the attention of Marlborough. 
At Blenheim, where he next fought, he was the only captain 
of his regiment who survived. At Menin he led the grena- 
diers who stormed the counterscarp.^ He fought at Malpla- 
quet, where he was major of brigade, and in all Marlborough's 



HUGUENOT SAILORS. 229 

great "battles. At Dettingen, as lieutenant general, he earned 
still higher distinction. At Fontenoy the chief honor was 
due to him for the intrepidity and sMU with which he led 
the British infantry, in 1 746 he was placed in command of 
the British forces in Flanders, but was taken prisoner at the 
battle of Lawfield. Restored to England, he was appointed 
commander-in-chief and colonel of the First Foot Guards; 
and in 1770 the Huguenot hero died full of honors, at the ripe 
age of ninety-two. 

Of the thousands of Protestant sailors who left France at 
the Revolution, many settled in the ports along the south 
and southeastern coast of England ; but the greater number 
entered the Dutch fleet, while a portion took service in the 
navy of the Elector . of Brandenburg. Louis XTV. took the 
same steps to enforce conversion upon his sailors that he did 
ujDon the other classes of his subjects; but, so soon as the 
sailors arrived in foreign ports, they usually took the oppor- 
tunity of deserting their ships, and thus reasserting their 
liberty. In 1686, three French vessels, which had put into 
Dutch ports, were entirely deserted by their crews, and in 
the same year more than 800 experienced mariners, trained 
under Duquesne, entered the navy of the United Provinces. 
When William sailed for England in 1688, the island of Zea- 
land alone sent him 150 excellent French sailors, who were 
placed, as picked men, on board the admiral and vice -ad- 
miral's ships. Like their Huguenot fellow-countrymen on 
land, the Huguenot sailors fought valiantly at sea under the 
flag of their adopted country, and they emulated the brav- 
ery of the English themselves^at the great naval battle of La 
Hogue a few years later. Many of the French naval officers 
rose to high rank in William's service, and acquired distinc- 
tion by their valor on that element which England has been 
accustomed to regard as peculiarly her own. Among these 
may be mentioned the Gamblers, descended from a Hugue- 
not refugee, one of whom rose to be a vice-admiral, and the 
other an admiral, the latter having also been raised to the 
peerage for his distinguished public services. 



CHAPTER XTTT. 

HUGUENOT SETTLEES IN" ENGLAND. — MEN OP SCIENCE AND 
LEARNING. 

Of the half million of French subjects who were driven 
into exile by the Revocation of the Edict of IN'antes, more 
than 120,000 are believed to have taken refuge in England. 
The refugees were of all ranks and conditions — landed gen- 
try, ministers of religion, soldiers and sailors, professional men, 
merchants, students, mechanics, artisans, and laborers. The 
greater number were Calvinists, and continued such ; others 
were Lutherans, who conformed to the English Church; but 
many were Protestants merely in name, principally because 
they belonged to families of that persuasion. But, however 
lightly their family religion might sit upon them, these last 
offered as strenuous a resistance as the most extreme Calvin- 
ists to being dragooned into popery. This was especially the 
case with men of science, professional men, and students of 
law and medicine. Hence the large proportion of physicians 
and surgeons to be found in the ranlis of the refugees. 

It was not merely free religious thought that Louis XIV. 
sought to stifle in France, but free thought of all kinds. The 
blow struck by him at the conscience of France, struck also 
at its mind. Individualism was crushed wherever it assert- 
ed itself. An entire abnegation of the will was demanded. 
Men must abjure their faith, and believe as they were order- 
ed. They must becpme part of a stereotyped system — pro- 
fess adherence to a church to which they were indifferent, if 
they did not actually detest it — pretend to believe what they 
really did not believe, and in many cases even deny their 
most deeply-rooted convictions. 



HUYGHENS~BAYLE—DE CAUS, 231 

To indolent minds such a system would no doulDt save an 
infinity of trouble. Once induce men to give up their indi- 
viduality, to renounce the exercise of theii- judgment, to cease 
to think, and entertain the idea that a certain set of men, and 
no other, held in their hands the keys of heaven and hell, and 
conformity became easy. But many of the French king's 
subjects were of another temperament. They would think 
for themselves in matters of science as well as religion ; and 
the vigorous, the independent, and the self-reliant — ^Protest- 
ant as well as non-Protestant — ^revolted against the intel- 
lectual tyranny which Louis attempted to establish among 
them, and fled for liberty of thought and worship into other 
lands. 

We have already referred to such men as Huyghens. and 
Bayle, who took refuge in Holland, and there found the free- 
dom denied them in their own country. These men were 
not Protestants so much as philosophers ; but they could not 
be hypocrites, and they would not conform: hence they fled 
from France. Others of like stamp took refuge in England. 
Among these latter were some of the earliest speculators as 
to that wonderful motive power which eventually became 
embodied in the worldng steam-engine. One of these fugi- 
tives was Solomon de Caus, a native of Caux, in N"ormandy. 
He was a man of encyclopsedic knowledge. He studied arch- 
itecture in Italy, and was an engineer, a mechanic, and a nat- 
ural j)hilosopher. Moreover, he was a Huguenot, which was 
fatal to his existence in France as a free man, and he took ref- 
uge in England. There he was employed about the court 
for a time, and, among other works, designed and erected hy- 
draulic works for the palace gardens at Richmond. Shortly 
afl;er he accompanied the Princess Elizabeth to Heidelberg, 
in Germany, on her marriage to the Elector Palatine, and 
there he published several works descriptive of the progress 
he had made in his inqukies as to the marvelous powers of 
steam. 
But still more distinguished among the Huguenot refugees 



232 HUGUENOT LITERATI. 

was Dr. Denis Papin, one of the early inventors of the steam- 
engine, and prohably also the inventor of the steam-boat. 
He was born at Blois in 1650, and studied medicine at the 
University of Paris, where he took his degree as physician. 
He began the practice of his profession, in which he met with 
considerable success ; but, being attracted to the study of 
mechanics, and having the advantage of the instruction of 
the celebrated Huyghens, he made rapid progress, and prom- 
ised to become one of the most eminent scientific men of his 
country. But Papin was a Protestant ; and when the practice 
of medicine by Protestant physicians came to be subjected 
to serious disabilities,* finding the door to promotion or even 
to subsistence closed against him unless he abjured, Papin 
determined to leave France; and in 1681, the same year in 
which Huyghens took refuge in Holland, Papin took refuge 
in England. Arrived in London, he was cordially welcomed 
by the men of science there, and especially by the Honorable 
Robert Boyle, imder whose auspices he was introduced to 
the Royal Society. 

In the year of his arrival in London, Papin published a 
work descriptive of his new digester, which excited consider- 
able interest. By means of this digester — in which the heat 
of the water was raised much above the boiling-point by pre- 
venting the escape of the steam — Papin was enabled to ex- 
tract all the nutritious matter from the bones of animals, 
which had until then been thrown away as useless. The 
Fellows of the Royal Society had a supper cooked by the di- 
gester, of which Evelyn gives an account in his diary. The 
king commanded a digester to be made for Whitehall, and 

* In 1680, Protestant lawyers and medical men were declared excluded 
from holding any public employment ; and in the following year, physicians, 
surgeons, and others, called to assist the sick of the Reformed religion, were 
commanded to give notice thereof, under penalty of a fine of five hundred 
livres ; and on the notice being given, the magistrates were required to visit 
the sick, with or without a priest, and ask them if they would abjure. Prot- 
estant midAvives were absolutely forbidden to exercise their vocation, *' be- 
cause they did not believe baptism to be necessary, and could not christen 
children on emergency, " 



DENIS PAPIN. 233 



the invention sliortly came into general use. In the preface 
to the second edition of his work, Papin announces that he 
" will let people see the Machines try'd once a week, in Black- 
friars, in Water Lane, at Mr. Boissonet's [doubtless another 
Huguenot refugee], over against the Blew Boot, every Mon- 
day at three of the clock in the afternoon ; but, to avoid con- 
fusion and crowding in of unknown people, those that will do 
me the honour to come are desii'ed to bring along with them 
a recommendation from any of the mem'Sers of the Royal So- 
ciety." 

In 1684 Papin was appointed temporary curator of the 
Royal Society, with a salary of. £30 a year. It formed part 
of his duty, in connection with his new office, to produce an 
experiment at each meeting of the society, and this led him 
to prosecute his inqumes into the powers of steam, and ulti- 
mately to invent his steam-engine.* Papin's reputation hav- 
ing extended abroad, he was invited to fill the office of pro- 
fessor of mathematics in the University of Marburg, which 
he accepted ; and he left England in the year 1687. But he 
contmued, until his death, many years later, to maintain a 
friendly correspondence with his scientific fr'iends in En- 
gland ; and one of the last things he did was to construct a 
model steam-engme fitted in a boat — "une petite machine 
d'un vaisseau k roues" — for the pui-pose of sending it over to 
England for trial on the Thames.f But, unhappily for Papin, 
the little vessel never reached England. To his great grief, 
he found that when it had reached as far as Mtinden, on the 
Weser, it was seized by the boatmen of the river and barbar- 
ously destroyed. Three years later the illustrious exile died, 
worn out by work and anxiety, leaving it to other inventors 

* For an account of Solomon de Cans, as well as of the life and labors of 
Dr. Papin, see "Historical Memoir of the invention of the Steam-engine," 
given in the Lives of Boulton and Watt, p. 8, 30-8. 

t "It is important," he wrote to Leibnitz, on the 7th of July, 1707, "that 
my new construction of vessel should be put to the proof in a sea-port like 
London, where there is depth enough to apply the new invention, which, by 
means of fire, w^ill render one or two men capable of producing more effect 
than some hundreds of rowers." 



234 RUG UENO T LITER A TL 

to realize the great ideas lie had conceived as to locomotion 
by steam-power. 

Dr. Desaguliers was another refugee who achieved consid- 
erable distinction in England as a teacher of mechanical phi- 
losophy. His father, Jean des Aguliers, was pastor of a Prot- 
estant congregation at Aitre, near Rochelle, from which he 
fled about the period of the Revocation. His child, the future 
professor, is said to have been carried on board the ship by 
which he escaped concealed in a, barrel.* The pastor first 
took refuge in Guernsey, from whence he proceeded to En- 
gland, took orders in the Established Church, and became 
minister of the French chapel in Swallow Street, London. 
This charge he subsequently resigned, and established a 
school at Islington, at which his son received his first educa- 
tion. From thence the young man proceeded to Oxford, 
matriculating at Christ Church, where he obtained the de- 
gree of B.A., and took deacon's orders. Being drawn to the 
study of natural philosophy, he shortly after began to deliver 
lectures at Oxford on hydrostatics and optics, to which he 
afterward added mechanics. 

• His fame as a lecturer having reached London, Desaguliers 
was pressingly invited thither, and he accordingly removed 
to the metropolis in 1713. His lectures were much admired, 
and he had so happy a knack of illustrating them by experi- 
ments that he was invited by the Royal Society to be then* 
demonstrator. He was afterward appointed curator of the 
society ; and in the course of his connection with it commu- 
nicated a vast number of curious and valuable i^apers, which 
were printed in the transactions. The Duke of Chandos gave 
Desaguliers the church living of Edgeware ; and the king 
(before whom he gave lectures at Hampton Court) presented 

* The statement is made in the " House and Fann Accoimts of the Shut- 
tleworths of Gawthorpe Hall." — Cheetham Society's Papers^ 1856-8. The 
Shuttleworths were related hy marriage to the Desaguliers family j Robert 
Shuttleworth, one of the successors to Gawthorpe, having married Anne, the 
second daughter of General Desaguliers (son of the above Dr. Desaguliers), 
who was one of the equerries of George III. 



DR, DESA G ULIERS—D URAND—DE MOIVRE. 235 

him with a benefice in Essex, besides appointing him chaplain 
to the Prince of Wales. 

In 1734 Desaguliers published his Course of Mnperimental 
Philosophy in two quarto volumes — the best book of the kind 
that had until then appeared in England. It would appear 
from this work that the doctor also designed and superin- 
tended the erection of steam-engines. Referring to an im- 
provement which he had made on Savery's engine, he says : 
"According to this improvement, I have caused seven of 
these fire-engines to be erected since the year- 1717 or 1718. 
The first was for the late Czar Peter the Great, for his garden 
at Petersburg, where it was set up." Dr. Desaguliers died in 
1749, leaving behind him three sons, one of whom, the eldest, 
published a translation of the Mathematical Elements ofN'at- 
ural Philosophy, by Gravesande, who had been a pupil of his 
father's ; the second was a beneficed clergyman in Norfolk ; 
and the third was a colonel of artillery and lieutenant gen- 
eral in the army, as well as equerry to George m. 

Among other learned refugees who were elected members 
of the Royal Society were David Durand, the editor oi Pliny'' s 
Natural History, TJie Philosophical Writings of Cicero, and 
other classical works, and the author of a JERstory of the Six- 
teenth Century, as well as of the continuation oiRaphi^s His- 
tory of England ; Peter des Maiseaux, the intimate friend of 
Saint Evremonde, whose works he edited and translated into 
English ; and Abraham de Moivre, the celebrated mathema- 
tician. 

De Moivre was the son of a surgeon at Yitry in Cham- 
pagne, and received his principal education at the Protestant 
seminary of Sedan. From the first he displayed an extraor- 
dinary genius for arithmetic ; and his chief delight in his by- 
hours was to shut himself up with Le Gendre's arithmetic 
and work out its problems. This led one of his classical 
masters to ask on one occasion, "What that little rogue 
meant to do with all these ciphers T When the college of 
Sedan was suppressed in 1681, De Moivre went to Saumur to 



236 HUGUENOT LITERATI. 

pursue his studies in philosophy there, and afterward to Paris 
to prosecute the study of physics. By this time his father, 
being prohibited practicing as a surgeon because of his relig- 
ion, left Yitry to join his son at Paris j but they were not al- 
lowed to remain long together. The agents of the govern- 
ment, acting on theii* power of separating children from then- 
parents and subjecting them to the process of conversion, 
seized young De Moivre in his nineteenth year, and shut him 
up in the priory of St. Martin. There his Jesuit masters 
tried to drill him into the Roman Catholic faith; but the 
young Protestant was stanch, and refused to be converted. 
Being pronounced an obstinate heretic, he was discharged 
after about two years' confinement, on which he was ordered 
forthwith to leave the country. 

De Moivre arrived in London with his father* in 1 687, at 
the age of twenty, and immediately bestirred himself to earn 
a living. He had no means but his knowledge and his in- 
dustry. He first endeavored to obtain pupils, to instruct 
them in mathematics ; and he also began, like others of the 
refugees, to give lectures on natural philosophy. But his 
knowledge of English was as yet too imperfect to enable him 
to lecture with success, and he was, besides, an indifferent 
manipulator, so that his lectures were shortly discontinued. 
It happened that the JPrincipia of Newton was published 
about the time that De Moivre arrived in England. The 
subject offering great attractions to a mind such as his, he 
entered upon the study of the book with much zest, and suc- 
ceeded before long in mastering its contents, and arriving at 
a clear understanding of the views of the author. So com- 
plete was his knowledge of Newton's principles, that it is 
said, when Sir Isaac was asked for explanations of his writ- 
ings, he would say, " Go to De Moivre ; he knows better 
than I do." 



* We find, from the Lists of Foreign Protestants published by the Camden 
Society (1862), that Abraham and Daniel de Moivre obtained letters of nat- 
uralization on the 16th of December, 1687. 



ABRAHAM DE MOIVRE. 237 

Thus De Moivre acquired the friendship and respect of 
Newton, of Halley, and the other distinguished scientific men 
of the time ; and one of the best illustrations of the esteem 
in which his intellectual qualifications were held is afforded 
by the fact that in the contention which arose between Leib- 
nitz and Newton as to their respective priority in the inven- 
tion of the method of fluxions, the Royal Society appointed 
De Moivre to report upon their rival claims. 

De Moivre published many original works on his favorite 
subject, more particularly on analytical mathematics. Pro- 
fessor De Morgan has observed of them that " they abound 
with consummate contrivance and skill ; and one, at least, of 
his investigations has had the effect of completely changing 
the whole character of trigonometrical science in its higher 
departments."* One of the works published by him, entitled 
The Doctrine of Chances, is curious, as leading, in a measure, 
to the development of the science of life assurance. From 
the first edition it does not appear that De Moivre intended 
to do more than illustrate his favorite theory of probabili- 
ties. He showed in a variety of ways the probable results 
of throwing dice in certain numbers of throws. From dice- 
throwing he proceeded to lotteries, and showed how many 
tickets ought to be taken to secure the probability of draw- 
ing a prize. A few years later he applied his views to a more 
practical purpose — the valuation of annuities on lives; and 
though the data pn which he based his calculations were in- 
correct, and his valuations consequently unreliable, the pub- 
.lication of his Doctrine of Chances, applied to the valuation 
of annuities on lives, was of much use at the time it appear- 
ed, and it foi-med the basis of other and more accurate cal- 
culations. 

De Moivre's books were on too abstruse subjects to yield 
him much profit, and during the later years of his life he had 
to contend with poverty. It is said that he derived a pre- 
carious subsistence from fees paid him for solving questions 
* Art. " De Moivre" in Penny Cyclopedia. 



238 HUGUENOT LITERATI. 

relative to games of chance and other matters connected with 
the value of probabilities. He frequented a coffee-house in 
St. Martin's Lane, of which he was one of the attractions, and 
there his customers sought him to work out their problems. 
The occupation could not have been very tolerable to such a 
man ; but he was growing old and helpless in body, and his 
power of calculating was his only capital He survived to 
the age of eighty-seven, but during the last month of his life 
he sank into a state of total lethargy. Shortly before his 
decease the Academy of Berlin elected him a member. The 
French Academy of Sciences also elected him a foreign asso- 
ciate ; and on the news of his death reaching Paris, M. de 
Fouchy drew up an eloquent eloge of the exiled Huguenot, 
which was duly inserted in the records of the Academy. 

For the reasons above stated, the number of. refugee phy- 
sicians and surgeons who sought the asylum of England was 
very considerable. Many of them settled to practice in Lon- 
don and other towns in the south, while others obtained ap- 
pointments in the army and navy. Weiss says it was to 
the French surgeons especially that. England was in a great 
measure indebted for the remarkable perfection to which 
English surgical instruments arrived. The College of Phy- 
sicians in London generously opened their doors to the ad- 
mission of* their foreign brethren. Between the years 1681 
and 1689 we find nine French physicians admitted, among 
whom we observe the name of the eminent Sebastian le 
Fevre.* One of the members of the same family subse- 
quently settled in Spitalfields as a. silk manufacturer, from 
whom the late Speaker of the House of Commons, now Vis- 
count Eversley, is lineally descended. 

Among the literary men of the emigration were the broth- 
ers Du Moulins — Louis,'for some time Camden professor of 

* The family were of long and eminent standing in Anjou as medical men. 
Joshua le Tevre obtained letters of natiiralizatipnin 1681 ; but before that 
date Measius le Fevre, a member, of the same' family, was appointed chemist 
to Charles 11., with a fee of £150 a year. — ^Durrant Cooper — Lists of For- 
eign Protestants, p. xxvi. 



REFUGEE A VTHORS. 239 

history at Oxford, and Peter, prebendary of Canterbury — 
both authors of numerous works ; Henry Justel, the learned 
secretary to Louis XTV., who sold off his valuable library 
and fled to England some years before the Revocation, when 
he was appointed king's librarian ; Peter Anthony Motteaux, 
an excellent linguist, whose translations of Cervantes and 
Rabelais first popularized the works of those writers in this 
country ; Maximilian Misson, author of A New Yoyage to 
Italy, Theatre Sacr^ des Cevennes, and other works ; Michel 
de la Roche, author of the Memoirs', of Ziterature, and A Lit- 
erary Journal, which filled up a considerable gap in literary 
history ;* Michel Maittaire, M. A. Oxon, one of the masters of 
Westminster School, an able philologist, the author of several 
learned works on typography as well as theology ; De Sou- 
ligne, grandson of Du Plessis Mornay (the Huguenot leader), 
author of The Desolation of France Demonstrated, The Po- 
litical Mischiefs of Popery, and other works ; John Gagnier, 
the able Orientalist, professor of Oriental languages at Ox- 
ford University, and the author of many learned treatises on 
Rabbinical' lore and kindred subjects; John Cornaud de la 
Croze, author of the BihliothhgxLe TJjii'oerselle, The WorJcs of 
the Learned, and The History of Learning ; Abel Boyer, the 
annalist, author of the well-known French and English Dic- 
tionary, who pursued a successful, literary career in England 
for nearly forty years; Mark Anthony de la Bastide,. author 
of several highly-esteemed controversial works ; and Grav- 

* In his Literary Journal De la Eoche says, "I was very young when I 
took refuge in England, so that most of the little learning I have got is of an 
English growth. . . . 'Tis in this countiy I have learned to have a right no- 
.tion of rehgion, an advantage .that can never be too much valued. Being a 
studious man, it was very natural to me to write some books, which I have 
done, partly in English and partly in French, for the space of twenty years. 
The only advantage I have got by them is that they have not been unaccept- 
able, and I hope I have done no dishonor to the Enghsh nation by those 
French books printed beyond, sea, in which I undertook- to make our English 
learning better known to foreigners than it was before. ' I have said just now 
that I took refuge in England. When I consider the continual fear I was in 
for a whole year of being discovered and imprisoned to force me to abjure the 
Protestant religion, and the great difficulties I met with to make my escape, 
I wonder I have not been a stupid man ever since." 



240 HUG UENO T LITERA TL 

erol of Msmes, one of tiie founders of the academy of that 
city, a poet and jurisconsult, who published in London a his- 
tory of his native place, addressed to "Messieurs lesRefugies 
de Ntmes qui sont etahlis dans Londres." The last pages of 
this book contain a touching narrative of the sufferings of 
the Protestants of Languedoc, and it concludes as follows ; 
"We, who are in a country so remote from our own only 
for the sake of God's Word, and for the testimony of Jesus 
Christ, let us study to render our confession and our faith 
glorious by discreet and modest conduct, by an exemplary 
life, and by entire devotion to the service of God. Let us 
ever bear in mind that we are the sons and the fathers of 
martyrs. Let us never forget this glory, but strive to trans- 
mit it to our posterity."* 

But the most eminent of the refugees were unquestionably 
the pastors, some of whom were men highly distinguished for 
their piety, learning, and eloquence. Such were Abbadie, 
considered one of the ablest defenders of Christianity in his 
day ; Saurin, one of the most eloquent of preachers ; Allix, 
the learned philologist and historian ; and Delange, his col- 
league ; Pineton, author of Les JJarmes de Ohambrun^ char- 
acterized by Michelet as "that beautiful but terrible re- 
cital ;" Du Moulin, Drelincourt, Marmet, and many more. 

Jacques Abbadie was the scion of a distinguished Bearn- 
ese family. After completing his studies at Sedan and Sau- 
mur, he took his doctor's degree at the age of seventeen. 
While still a young man, he was invited to take charge of 
the French church in Berlin, to which he acceded ; and his 
reputation served to attract large numbers of refugees to 
that city. His Treatise on the Truth of the Christian Relig- 
ion greatly increased his fame, not only at Berlin, but in 
France and throughout Europe. Madame de Sevigne, though 
she rejoiced at the banishment of the Huguenots, spoke of it 
in a high strain of panegyric as the most divine of all books : 
" I do not believe,*' she said, " that any one ever spoke of re- 
* Weiss, p. 267. 



ABBADIE—SA URIN. 24 1 

> 
ligion like this man!" Even Bussy Rabutin, who scarce 
passed for a believer, said of it, "We are reading it now, and 
we think it the only book in the world worth readuig." A 
few years later, Abbadie published his Treatise on the Divin- 
ity of Jesus Christ. It is so entirely free irom controversial 
animus, that the Roman Catholics of France even hoped to 
win him over to their faith, and they held out then* hand to 
help him within their pale. But they only deceived them- 
selves ; for, on the death of the elector, Abbadie, instead of 
returning to France, accompanied his friend Marshal Schom- 
berg to Holland, and afterward to England, in the capacity 
of chaplain. He was with the marshal during his campaigns 
in Ireland, and suffered the grief of seeing his benefactor fall 
mortally wounded at the Boyne. Returning to London, Ab- 
badie became attached as minister to the church of the Sa- 
voy, where crowds flocked to his preaching. While holding 
this position, he wrote his Art of Knowing One's Self in 
which he powerfully illustrated the relations of the human 
conscience to the duties inculcated by the Gospel. He also 
devoted his pen to the cause of William HI., and published his 
Defetise of the British Nation^m which he justified the deposi- 
tion of James H. and the Revolution of 1688 on the ground of 
right and morality. Li 1694 he was selected to pronounce 
the funeral oration of Queen Mary, wife of William HI. — a sei'- 
mon containing many passages of great eloquence; shortly 
after which he entered the English Church, and was appointed 
to the deanery of Killaloe, in which office he ended his days. 
Jacques Saurin was the greatest of the Protestant preach- 
ers. He was the son of an advocate at Nismes, whose three 
sons an took refuge in England — Jacques, the pulpit orator ; 
Captain Saurin, an officer in William's army ; and Louis, some 
time minister of the French church in the Savoy, and after- 
ward Dean of St. Patrick's, Ardagh.* Jacques Saurin was, 

* From him were lineally descended the Right Reverend James Saurin, 
Bishop of Dromore, and the Honorable William Saurin, Attorney General for 
Ireland from 1807 to 1821. 

Q 



242 HUGUENOT LITERATI. 

in the early part of his life, tempted to the profession of 
arms ; and when only seventeen years of age he served as an 
ensign in the army of Savoy, under the Marqnis de Ruvigny, 
earl of Gal way. Returning to his studies at Geneva, he pre- 
pared himself for the ministry ; and having proceeded to En- 
gland in 1701, he was appointed one of the ministers of the 
French church in Threadneedle Street. He held that office 
for four years, after which he was called to the Hague, and 
there developed that talent as a preacher for which he be- 
came so distinguished. He was made minister extraordi- 
nary to the French community of nobles, and held that office 
until his death. " ^N'othing," says Weiss, " can give an idea 
of the effect produced by his inspired voice, which for twen- 
ty-five years resounded beneath the vaulted roof of the tem- 
ple at the Hague, unless it be the profound veneration and 
pious worship with which the memory of the great author, 
continually ' revived by the perusal of his writings, has re- 
mained surrounded in Holland."* 

Scarcely less distinguished was Peter Allix, for some time 
minister of the great Protestant church at Charenton, near 
Paris, and afterward of the temple of the French Hospital in 
Spitalfields, London. His style of preaching was less ornate, 
but not less forcible, than that of Saurin. His discourses 
were simple, clear, and persuasive. The great object at 
which he aimed was the enforcement of union among Protest- 
ants. Louis XIV. tried every means to induce him to enter 
the Roman Catholic Church, and a pension was offered him 
if, in that case, he would return to France. But Allix resist- 
ed all persuasions, and died in exile. His great erudition 
was recognized by the University of Oxford and Cambridge, 
who conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity; 
and, on the recommendation of Bishop Burnet, he was made 
canon and treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral. Allix left be- 
hind him many published works, which in their time were 
highly esteemed. 

* Weiss, p. 397. 



JA CQ UES FINETON. 243 

Jacques Pineton was another of the refugee pastors who 
illustrated his faith "by his life, which was pure andbeautiftil. 
He had personally suffered more than most of his brethren, 
and he lived to relate the story of his trials in his touching 
narrative entitled Les Larmes de Ghambrun. He was pastor 
of a Protestant church in the village of that name, situated 
near Avignon, in the principality of Orange, when the dis- 
trict was overran by the troops of Louis XTV. The dragon- 
nade was even more furiously conducted here than elsewhere, 
because of the hatred entertained by the king toward the 
Protestant prince who took his title from the little principal- 
ity. The troops were under the command of the Count of 
Tess^j a ferocious and profane officer. Pineton was laid up 
at the time by an attack of the gout, the suffering from which 
was aggravated by the recent fracture of a rib which he had 
sustained. As he lay helpless on his couch, a party of forty- 
two dragoons burst into his house, entered his chamber, lit a 
number of candles, beat their drums round his bed, and fill- 
ed the room witli tobacco-smoke, so as almost to stifle him. 
They then drank until they fell asleep and snored ; but their 
officers, entering, roused them from their stupor by laying 
about among them with their canes. While the men were 
asleep, Pineton had urged his wife to fly, which she attempt- 
ed to do, but was taken in the act and brought before Tesse, 
who brutally told her that she must regard herself as the 
property of the regiment. She fell at his feet distracted, and 
would have been lost, but that a priest, to whom Pmeton 
had rendered some service, offered himself as surety for her. 
The priest, however, made it a condition that she and her 
husband should abjure their religion ; and, in a moment of 
agony and despair, they succumbed. Remorse immediately 
followed, and they determined to take the first opportunity 
to fly. Upon the plea that Pineton, still in great pain, re- 
quired surgical aid, he obtained leave to proceed to Lyons. 
He was placed in a litter, the slightest movement of which 
caused him indescribable pain. When the people saw him 



2U HUG UENOT LITERA TL 

carried away, they all wept, Catholic as well as Protestant. 
Even the dragoons were moved. The sufferer contrived to 
reach Lyons, where he was soon cured and convalescent. It 
appeared that the fi'ontier was less strictly guarded near 
Lyons ; and with the assistance of a friend, Pineton shortly 
after contrived to escape in the disguise of a general officer. 
He set out in a carriage with four horses, attended by a train 
of servants in handsome liveries. At the bridge of Beauvoi- 
sin, where a picket of dragoons was posted, he was allowed 
to cross without interruption, the soldiers having previously 
been informed that " my lord" was a great officer traveling- 
express into Switzerland. There was, however, still the 
frontier-guard of the Duke of Savoy to pass. It commanded 
the great road across the Alps, and was maintained for the 
express purpose of preventing the flight of refugees. By the 
same bold address, and feigning great indignation at the 
guard attempting to obstruct his passage, Pineton was al- 
lowed to proceed, and shortly after reached Chambery. 
ISText morning he entered the French gate of Geneva, giving 
expression to his feelings by singing the eighth verse of the 
twenty-sixth Psalm — 

" Que j'aime ce saint lieu 
On Tu parois, mon Dieu," etc. 

Madame Pineton was less fortunate in her flight. She set 
out for the Swiss frontier accompanied by three ladies^ be- 
longing to Lyons. The guides whom they had hired and 
paid to conduct them had the barbarity to desert them in 
the mountains. It was winter. They wandered and lost 
their way. They were nine hours in the snow. They were 
driven away from Garden, and were pursued along the 
Rhone. The Lyons ladies, vanquished by cold, fatigue, and 
hunger, wished to return to Lyons and give themselves up ; 
they could endure no longer. But Madame Pineton hoped 
that by this time her husband had reached Geneva, and she 
found courage for them all. She would not listen to the pro- 
posal to go back; she must go forward; and the contest 



OXFORD GRADUATES. 2i5 

ended in tlieir proceeding, and arriving at last at Geneva, 
and finding there safety and liberty. 

The pastor Pineton, after remaining for a short time in 
that city, proceeded toward Holland, where he was gracious- 
ly received by the Prince of Orange. Having been appointed 
one of the princess's chaplains, he accompanied Mary to Lon- 
don, and was appointed a canon of Windsor. He did not, 
however, live long to enjoy that dignity, for he died in 1689, 
the year after his arrival m England, though he lived to 
give to the world the touching narrative of his adventures 
and sufferings.* 

Many of the most distinguished of the French pastors were 
admitted to degrees in the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge,! ^^^ several, besides the above, held benefices in the 

* Those who would know the whole details of this exciting story must refer 
to Les Larmes de Jacques Pineton de Chamhrun, qui contiennent les Persecw- 
tions arriv6es aux Eglises de la Principaute d' Orange depuis 1660, la chute 
et le r€Uvement de VAuteur^ avec le retablissement de S. Pierre en son Apos- 
tolat sur les Paroles de notre Seigneur Jesus Christ, sehn S. Jean, xxi. 14, 
recently republished at Paris by Meyrueis. 

t Among the learned foreigners mentioned by Anthony Wood, in his Athe- 
na Oxoniensis, as having been admitted to the University of Oxford in ac- 
knowledgment of their learning, may be named the follo\ving : 
1625. John Vemeuil, M.A., Oxford (formerly of the University of Montau- 

ban). 
1625-6. Tliomas Levet, Bachelor of Civil Law, Oxford (fonnerly of the Uni- 
versity of Orleans). 
1638. Daniel Brevint, M.A., Oxford (formerly of the University of Saumur). 
1648-9. Abraham Stuard, M.D., Oxford (formerly of the University of 

Caen). 
1649. Louis da Moulin, M.D., Oxford and Cambridge (son of the French 
Protestant pastor Pierre du Moulin, and educated at the Universi- 
ty of Leyden). 

1655. Ludovic de Lambermont, M.D., Oxford (formerly of the University 

of Valence). 

1656. Pierre du Moulin, D.D., Oxford and "Cambridge (brother of the above- 

mentioned Louis). 

1656-7. Theophilus de Gai'encieres,M.D., Oxford (formerly of the Universi- 
ty of Caen). 

1656. Pierre Vasson, M.B., Oxford. 

1656-7. Abraham Conyard, Bachelor of Divinity, Oxford (formerly of the 
University of Rouen). 

1676. Stephen le Moine, D.D., Oxford (formerly of Rouen, and subsequently 
Professor of Theology at Leyden). 

1682-3. Samuel de 1' Angle, D.D., Oxford (formerly of Rouen and Paris). 

1685. James le Prix, D.D., Oxford (fonnerly Professor of Divinity in the 
University of Saumiu-). 



24:6 HUGUENOT LITEBATL 

English Church. In 1682, when the learned Samuel de I'An- 
gle was created D.D. of Oxford without payment of the cus- 
tomary fees, he was conducted into the House of Convocation 
by the king's professor of divinity, and all the masters stood 
up to receive him. De I'Angle had been the chief preacher 
in the church of Oharenton, near Paris ; and after thirty-five 
years of zealous work there, he fled from France with his 
family to end his days in England. He was afterward made 
Prebendary of Canterbury and Westminster. Peter Drelin- 
court, son of the famous French divine, whose work on 
DeatW has been translated into nearly all the languages of 
Europe, was another refugee who entered the Church, and 
became Dean of Armagh ; and Dr. Hans de Veille, a man of 
great learning, having also entered the Church, was made li- 
brary-keeper at Lambeth Palace by Dr. Tillotson, then Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. 

Though many of the most eminent French ministers joined 
the Established Church of England, others equally learned 
and able became preachers and professors among the Dis- 
senters. While Pierre du Moulin was a Prebendary of Can- 
terbury, his brother Louis was a stout Presbyterian. Charles 
Marie du Yeil, originally a Jew, was first converted to Ro- 
man Catliolicism, next to Protestantism, and ended by be- 
coming a Baptist minister. But the most eminent of the ref- 
ugees who joined the Dissenters was the Reverend James 
Capell, who had held the professorship of Hebrew in the Uni- 
versity of Saumur at the early age of nineteen. He fled into 

1686. Rene Bertheau, D.D., Oxford (formerly of the University of Montpel- 

lier). 
1686-7. James d'Allemagne, D.D., Oxford (a Trench minister of the Prot- 
estant Church). 

1687. Elias Boherel, Bachelor of Civil Law, Oxford (formerly of the Univer- 

sity of Saumur). 

1689. John Mesnai-d, D.I)., Oxford (formerly minister of Charenton, and sub- 
sequently chaplain to William III.). 

1689. John Deffray, M.A., Oxford (formerly of the University of Saumur), 
etc., etc., etc. 
* Z.es Consolations de VAm&fiddU contre les Vrayeurs de /a Jl/orf has been 

printed more than forty tjpes in French, and many times in England in its 

translated form. 



MINISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES, 247 

England shortly after the Revocation, and in 1Y08 he accept- 
ed a professor's chair at the Dissenters' College in Hoxton 
Square. There he long continued to teach the Oriental lan- 
guages and their critical application in the study of the 
Scriptures, and he performed his duties with such distin- 
guished ahility that the institution came to enjoy a very 
high repute. Many of the ablest ministers of the next gen- 
eration, churchmen as well as dissenters, studied under Mr. 
Capell, and received from him their best education. He held 
the office for fourteen years, and died at eighty-three, the last 
of his family. 

Of the ministers *of the French churches in London, besides 
those already named, the most distinguished were the Rev- 
erend Charles Bertheau, minister of the French church in 
Threadneedle Street, who officiated in that capacity with 
great ability for a period of forty-six years ; the Reverend 
Henri Chatelain, minister of the French church in St. Martin's 
Lane ;* the Reverend Caesar Pegorier ^ minister of the Artil- 
lery and the Tabernacle churches, and author of numerous 
controversial works ; the Reverend Henri Rochblave, minis- 
ter of the refugee church at Greenwich, and afterward of the 
French Chapel Royal, St. James's; the Reverend Daniel Cha- 
mier, minister of the French church in Leicester Fields ; and 
the Reverend Jean Graverol, minister of the French churches 
of Swallow Street and the Quarre, a voluminous and eloquent 
writer. The Reverend Antoine Peres (formerly professor of 
Oriental languages in the University of Montauban) and Eze- 
kiel Marmet were ministers of other French churches, and 
were greatly beloved — ^Marmet's book of meditations on the 
words of Job, " I know that my Redeemer liveth," being 
prized by devout readers of all persuasions. 

* Henri CHiatelain was the great-grandson of Simon Chatelain, the famous 
Protestant manufacturer of gold and silver lace. This lace was a much- 
prized article. It procured for the steadfast Huguenot the toleration of his 
religion, in which he was zealous from the fifteenth year of his age to the 
eighty-fifth, which was his last. He died in 1675, leaving more than eighty 
descendants, who all paid fines for openly attending his funeral — Agnew — 
French Protestant Exiles, 237. 



248 HUGUENOT LITERATI. 

The Reverend Claude de la Mothe and Jean Armand du 
Bourdieu were ministers of the French church in the Savoy, 
the principal West-end congregation, frequented by the most 
distinguished of the refugees. Both these ministers were 
eminent for their learning and their eloquence. The former 
was of a noble Huguenot family named Grostete, and studied 
law when a youth at Orleans, his native city, where he took 
the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. He was also a member 
of the Royal Society of Berlin. He practiced for some time 
at Paris as an advocate, but subsequently changed law for 
divinity, and was appointed pastor of the church at Lisy in 
1675. At the Revocation he fled to England with his wife, 
and was appointed one of the ministers of the church in the 
Savoy. He was the author of numerous works, which en- 
joyed a high reputation in their day, and, besides, devoted 
much of his spare time to correspondence, with the object of 
obtaining the release of Protestant martyrs from the French 
galleys. 

Jean Armand du Bourdieu, the colleague of De la Mothe, 
though celebrated as a preacher, was still more distinguished 
as an author. Like himself, his father was a refugee divine, 
and preached in London until his ninety-fifth year. Jean 
Armand had been pastor of a church at Montpellier, which 
he left on the Revocation, and came into England, followed 
by a large number of his flock. He was chaplain to the 
three dukes of Schomberg in succession, and was by the old 
duke's side when he fell at the Boyne. Li 1*707 he preach- 
ed a sermon in London, which was afterward published, 
wherein he alluded to Louis XIV. as a Pharaoh to the op- 
pressed Protestants of France. The French king singled him 
out from the many refugee preachers in England, and demand- 
ed, through his minister, that he should be punished. Louis's 
complaint was formally referred to the Bishop of London — 
the French church in the Savoy being under his jurisdiction — 
and Du Bourdieu was summoned before his grace at Fulham 
Palace to answer the charge. After reading and considering 



ARMAND DU BOURDIEU. 249 

the memorial of the French embassador, the pastor was ask- 
ed what he had to say to it. He re^Dlied that " during the 
war he had, after the example of several prelates and clergy- 
men of the Church of England, preached freely against the 
common enemy and persecutor of the Church ; and the great- 
est part of his sermons being printed with his name affixed, 
he was far from disowning them ; but "since the proclamation 
of peace [of Utrecht], he had not said any thing that did in 
the least regard the French king." No farther steps were 
taken in the matter. 

Du Bourdieu continued indefatigably active on behalf of 
his oppressed brethren in France during the remainder of his 
life. His pen was seldom idle, and his winged words flew 
abroad and kept alive the indignation of the Protestant 
north against the persecutors of his countrymen. In 171 '7 he 
published two works, one "A Vindication of our Martyrs at 
the Galleys ;" another, "A Comparison of the Penal Laws of 
France against Protestants with those of England against 
Papists ;" and, in the following year, " An Appeal to the En- 
glish Nation." He was now an old man of seventy ; but his 
fire burned bright until the last. Two years later he died, 
beloved and lamented by all who knew him.* 

Tliere is little reason to doubt that the earnestness, elo- 
quence, and learning of this distinguished band of exiles for 
conscience' sake exercised an influence not only on English 
religion and politics, but also on English literature, which 
continues to operate until this day. 

* A great-grandson of Du Bom-dieu, Captain Saumarez Dubourdieu, was 
an officer in the British araiy at the capture of Martinique fi'om the Erench 
in 1762, and received the sword of the French commandant, who said, on 
presenting it, "My misfortune is the lighter, as I am conquered by a Du- 
bourdieu, a beloved relative. My name is Duboui'dieu !" 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. — MEN OE INDUSTRY. 

"We now come to tte immigration and settlement in En- 
gland of Huguenot merchants, manufacturers, and artisans, 
whicli exercised a still greater influence on Englisti industry 
than the immigration of French literati and divines did 
upon English literature. 

It is computed that about 100,000 French manufacturers 
and workmen fled into England in consequence of the Revo- 
cation, besides those who took refuge in Switzerland, Ger- 
many, and Holland. When the Huguenot emjployers shut up 
their works in France, their men usually prepared to follow 
them. They converted vT-hat they could into money, what- 
ever the loss might be, and made for the coast, accompanied 
by their families. Tlie paper-makers of Angoumois left their 
mills; the silk-makers of Touraine left their looms, and the 
tanners their pits ; the vine-dressers and farmers of Saint- 
onge, Poitou, and La Rochelle left their vineyards, their 
farms, and their gardens, and looked out into the wide world, 
seaward, for a new home and a refuge, where they might 
work and worship in peace. 

The principal emigration into England was from Nor- 
mandy* and Brittany. Upward of 10,000 of the industrial 
class left Rouen ; and several thousand persons, priucipally 
engaged in the maritime trade, set out from Caen, leaving 
that city to solitude and poverty. The whole Protestant 
population of Coutances emigrated, and fine linen manufac- 
tures of the place were at once extinguished. There was a 
similar flight of masters and men from Elboeuf, Alen9on, 

* Floquet, the accredited historian of Normandy (^zsfozVe du Parlement 
de Normandie), calculates that not less than 184,000 Protestants took advan- 
tage of the vicinity of the sea, and of their connection writh England and Hol- 
land, to abandon tiieir country. 



HUGUENOT FUGITIVES. 251 

CaudebeCjHavi'e, and other northern towns. The makers of 
noyal and white linen cloths, for which a ready market had 
been obtained abroad, left N'antes, Rennes, and Morlaix in 
Brittany, and Le Mans and Laval in Maine, and went over to 
England to carry on their manufactures there. The prov- 
inces farther north also contributed largely to swell the 
stream of emigration into England: the cloth-makers depart- 
ed from Amiens, Abbeville, and Doullens ; the gauze-makers 
and lace-makers from Lille and Valenciennes ; and artisans 
of all kinds from the various towns and cities of the interior. 

IsTotwithstanding the precautions taken by the French 
government, and the penalty of death, or the galleys for life, 
to which those were subject who were taken in the act of 
flight, the emigration could not be stopped. The fugitives 
were helped on their way by their fellow-Protestants, and 
often by the Roman Catholics themselves, who pitied their 
sad fate. The fugitives lay concealed in barns and farm- 
yards by day, and traveled by night toward the coast. 
There the maritime population, many of whom were Prot- 
estants like themselves, actively connived at theii* escape. 
France presented too wide a reach of sea-frontier, extending 
from Bayonne to Calais, to be effectively watched by any 
guard, and not only the French, but the English and Dutch 
merchant - ships, which hovered about the coast waiting for 
the agreed signal to put in and take on board their freight 
of ftigitives, had usually little difficulty in carrying them off 
in safety. 

Of those fugitives who succeeded in making good their es- 
cape, the richest took refiige in Holland, while the bulk of 
those who settled in England were persons of comparatively 
small means. Yet a considerable sum of ready money must 
have been brought by the reftigees, as we find the French 
embassador writing to Louis XTV. in 1687 that as much as 
960,000 louis d'ors had already been sent to the Mint for con- 
version into English money.* This was, however, the prop- 

* Many of the refugees were eminent merchants and manufacturers, and did 



252 HUG UENO T SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 

erty of a comparatively small number of the more wealthy 
families, for the greater proportion of those who landed in 
England were altogether destitute. 

Steps were immediately taken for the relief of the poorer 
immigrants. Collections were made in the churches; pub- 
lic subscriptions were raised ; and Parliament voted consid- 
erable sums from the public purse.- Thus a fund of nearly 
£200,000 was collected, and invested for the benefit of the 
refugees — the annual interest, about £15,000, being intrusted 
to a committee for distribution among the most necessitous, 
while about £2000 a year was applied toward the support 
of the poor French ministers and their respective churches. 
The pressure on the relief fiind was of course the greatest 
in those years immediately following the Revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, before the destitute foreigners had been 
able to maintain themselves by their respective callings. 
There was also a large number of destitute landed gentry, 
professional men, and pastors, to whom the earnings of a 
livelihood was even more difficult ; and these also had to be 
relieved out of the fund. 

From the first report of the French Relief Committee, dat- 
ed December, 16 87 — that is, only fourteen months after the 
Revocation — it appears that 15,500 refugees had been re- 
lieved in the course of the year. " Of these," says Weiss, 
"13,050 were settled in London, and 2000 in the different 
sea-port towns where they had disembarked. Among them 
the committee distinguishes 140 persons of quality with theii- 
families; 143 ministers; 144 lawyers, physicians, traders, and 
burghers. It designates the others under the general denom- 
ination of artisans and workmen. The persons of quality re- 
ceived weekly assistance in money throughout the whole of 
that year. Their sons were placed in the best commercial 

undoubtedly bring along with them much money and effects, I have seen a 
computation, at the lowest supposition, of only 50,000 of those people coming 
to Great Britain, and that, one with another, they brought £60 each in mon- 
ey or effects, whereby they added three millions sterUng to the wealth of 
Britain. — Macphekson — Annals of Commerce, ii., 617. 



THE REFUGEES GENEROUSLY HELPED. 253 

houses. About 150 of them entered the army, and were pro- 
vided/at the cost of the committee, with a complete outfit. 
The ministers obtained for themselves and their families pen- 
sions which were regularly paid. Their sons found employ- 
ment in the houses of rich merchants or of persons of quali- 
ty. Weekly assistance was granted to the sick, and to those 
whose great age prevented them earning their own living by 
labor. The greater part of the artisans and workmen were 
employed in the English manufactories. The committee 
supplied them with the necessary implements and tools, and 
provided, at the same time, for all their other wants. Six 
hundred of them, for whom it could not find employment in 
England, were sent at its cost to America. Fifteen French 
churches were erected out of the proceeds of the national 
subscription— three in London, and twelve in the various 
couijties where the greater number of the refugees had set- 
tled."* 

The help thus generously given to the distressed refugees 
by the nation was very shortly rendered in a great measure 
unnecessary by the vigorous efibrts which they made to help 
themselves.! They sought about in all directions for em- 

* Weiss — History of the French Protestant Refugees, p. 224. 

t The emigi-ation from France, however, did not come to an end until about 
the middle of the eighteenth century. Every revival of reKgious persecution 
there was followed by a fresh injflux of fugitives into England. In 1718, the 
Rev. J. A. Dubourdieu, one of the ministers of the Savoy church, published 
An Appeal to the English Nation, in Aandication of the body of the Erench 
Protestants against the calumnies of one Mallard and his associates, as to the 
alleged misapplication of the national bounty. It appears that the number 
of poor foreign Protestants relieved out of the fund in that year was 5194. 
M, Dubourdieu says, " There are some among the refugees who, having been 
over here twenty or thirty years, have by their industry and labor maintained 
themselves without being burdensome to any one ; others who, not being bred 
to work for their living, brought over a small matter" with them, and spent it 
by degrees. Both these, being overcome by age and infirmities, and incapa- 
ble of doing any thing for themselves, are obliged to have recom-se to this 
beneficence. The number of these is certainly very great, and is farther in- 
creased by those that come daily from France, more especially since the last 
peace ; these come destitute of every thing. There are persons of aU ages 
and degrees among them. The old and infirm persons must be relieved ; 
and as for those that are young and in a condition to work, they want some 
assistance to put them forwai-d, and enable them to get their livelihood some 
way or other." It is farther incidentally mentioned that "there are 80 min- 



254 HUG UENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 

ployment, and being ingenious, intelligent, and industrious, 
they gradually succeeded in obtaining it. They were satis- 
fied with small gains, provided they were honestly come by. 
French work-people are better economists than English, and 
less sufficed for their wants. They were satisfied if they 
could keep a roof over their heads, a clean fireside, and the 
pot-au-feu going. What English artisans despised as food, 
they could make a meal of For they brought with them 
from France the art of cooking — the art of economizing nu- 
triment and at the same time presenting it in the most sa- 
vory forms — an art almost entirely unknown even at this 
day in the homes of English workmen, and a source of enor- 
mous national waste. Before the arrival of the refugees, the 
London butchers sold their bullocks' hides to the fellmongers, 
always with the tails on. The tails were thrown away and 
wasted. Who would ever dream of eating ox-tails? .The 
refugees profited by the delusion. They obtained the tails, 
enriched \j]iq\v pots-au-feu with them, and reveled in the now 
well-known delicacy of ox-tail soup. 

The refiigees were also very helpful of one another. The 
richer helped the poorer, and the poor helped each other. 
The Marquis de Ruviguy almost kept open house, and was 
equally ready to open his purse to his distressed countrymen. 
Those who had the means of starting manufactories and 
workshops employed as many hands as they could ; and the 
men who earned wages helped to support those who remained 
unemployed. Being of foreign birth, and having no claim 
upon the poor-rates, the French artisans formed themselves 
into societies for mutual relief in sickness and old age. These 
were the first societies of the kind established by workmen 

isters who, with their families, are partakers of the charity, besides 60 minis- 
ters' widows who have a charge of children, " Farther on, the writer says : 
" There are but two Trench churches in this city [London] that are able to 
give £100 a year to their ministers, and but foui- in all that can maintain the 
ministry without some allowance out of the royal benefaction." At the head 
of the French committee were, it is stated, the Archbishop of Canterbuiy and 
the Bishop of London. The total number of ' ' French refugees" M. Dubour- 
dieu then estimated at " near 100,000 persons in the two kingdoms." 



" PETTY FRANCE:' 255 



in England, though they have since heen largely imitated ;* 
and the Odd Fellows, Foresters, and numerous other benefit 
societies of the laboring class, though they may not know it, 
are but following in the path long since tracked out for them 
by the French refugees. 

The working-class immigrants very soon settled down to 
the practice of their respective callings in different parts of 
the country. A large proportion of them settled in London, 
and several districts of the metropolis were almost entirely 
occupied by them. Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, and Soho were 
the principal French quarters, where French was spoken in 
the workshops, in the schools and churches, and in the streets. 
But the immigrants distributed themselves in other districts, 
many of them settling in Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Shoreditch, 
and the quarter adjoining Thames Street. A little colony of 
them settled in one of the streets leading from Broad Street 
to the Guildhall, which came to be called " Petty France," 
from the number of French who inhabited it. Others settled 
in Long Acre, the Seven Dials, and the neighborhood of Tem- 
ple Bar. Le Mann, the famous biscuit-maker, opened his shop 
and flourished near the Royal Exchange. Some opened shops 
for the manufacture and sale of cutlery and mathematical 
and surgical instruments in the Strand ; while others began 
the making of watches, the fabrication of articles in gold and 
silver, and the cutting and mounting of jewelry, in which the 
French artisans were then admitted to be the most expert in 
Europe. 

France had long been the leader of fashion, and all the 
world bought dress and articles of vertu at Paris, Colbert 
was accustomed to say that the fashions were worth more to 

* One of the oldest of the French benefit societies was the "Norman Soci- 
ety" of Bethnal Green, which only ceased to exist in 1863, after a life of up- 
ward of 150 years. Down to the year 1800, the whole of the society's ac- 
counts were kept in Prench, the members being the descendants of French 
Protestants, mostly bearing French names ; but at length the foreign ele- 
ment became so mixed with the English that it almost ceased to be recogniz- 
able, and the society may be said to have died out with the absorption of the 
distinctive class for whose benefit it was originally instituted. 



256 HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 

France tliaii the mines of Peru were to Spain. Only articles 
of French manufacture, with a French name, could find pur- 
chasers among people of fashion in London. " The fondness 
of the nation for French commodities was such," said Joshua 
G-ee, " that it was a very hard matter to hring them into love 
with those made at home."* Another writer, Mi*. Samuel 
Fortrey, describmg the international trade between England 
and France in 1663, set forth the great disadvantages at 
which the English manufacturers were then placed, and how 
seriously the balance of trade was against England. Goods 
to the amount of above two and a half millions sterling were 
annually imported from France, whereas the value of English 
goods exported thither did not amount to a million. " The 
chief manufactures amongst us at this day," said he, " are 
only woollen cloths, woollen stuffs of various sorts, stockings, 
ribandings, and perhaps some few silk stuffs, and some other 
small things, scarce worth the naming ; and those already 
mentioned are so decayed and adulterated, that they are al- 
most out of esteem both at home and abroad." 

The principal articles imported from France previous to 
that time were velvets and satins from Lyons; silks and 
taffetas fi'om Tours ; silk ribbons, galloons, laces, gloves, and 
buttons from Paris and Rouen ; serges from Chalons, E-heims, 
■Amiens, and various towns in Picardy ; beaver and felt hats 
fi-om Paris, Rouen, and Lyons ; paper of all sorts from Au- 
vergne, Poitou, Limousin, Champagne, and Kormandy ; iron- 
mongery and cutlery from Forrests, Auvergne ; linen cloth 
from Brittany and ]S^ormandy ; salt from Rochelle and Oleron, 
Isle of Rh6 ; wines from Gascony, Nantes, and Bordeaux ; and 
feathers, fans, girdles, pins, needles, combs, soap, aquavitae, 
vinegar, and various sorts of household stuffs, from different 
parts of France. f 

* Joshua Gee — The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered. 

t The foUowing are the items as given by Mr. Fortrey in his Account of 
Trade between Great Britain^ France, Spain, etc., 1663 : 

Velvets, satins, etc., made at Lyons £150,000 

Silks, taffetas, and other articles made at Tours 300,000 



FRENCH MANUFA CTURES INTR OD UCED. 257 

So soon as the French, artisans settled in London, they pro- 
ceeded to establish and carry on the manufactures which they 
had practiced abroad, and a large portion of the stream of 
ofold which before had flowed into France, now flowed into 
England. They introduced all the manufactures connected 
with the fashions, so that English customers became supplied 
with French-made articles without requiring to send abroad 
money to buy them; while the refugees obtained a ready 
sale for all the goods they could make, at remunerative 
prices. " N"ay," says a writer of the time, " the English have 
now so great an esteem for the workmanship of the French 
refugees, that hardly any thing vends without a Gallic 
name."* The French beavers, which had before been im- 
ported from Caudebec in France, were now made in the bor- 
ough of Southwark and at Wandsworth, where several hat- 
makers began theii* operations on a considerable scale. f 



Silk ribbons, galloons, laces, and buttons, made at Paris, Rouen, etc. £150,000 
Serges, made at Chalons, Rheims, Amiens, Crevecceur, and towns 

in Picardy 150,000 

Beaver and felt hats, made at Paiis, Rouen, and Lyons 120,000 

Feathers, fans, girdles, etc 150,000 

Pins, needles, toi'toise-sliell combs, etc 20,000 

Gloves, made at Paris, Rouen, etc 10,000 

Paper of all sorts, made in Auvergne, Poitou, Limousin, Cham- 
pagne, and Normandy ; 100,000 

Ironmongery wares, made in Fon-ests, Auvergne, etc 40,000 

Linen cloth, made in Brittany and Noi*mandy 400,000 

Household stuiF, such as beds, mattresses, coverlets, hangings, 

fringes, etc 100,000 

Wines from Gascony, Nantes, Bordeaux, etc 600,000 

Aquavitaj, vinegar, etc 100,000 

Soap, honey, almonds, olives, prunes, etc 160,000 

500 or 600 vessels of salt from Rochelle, Oleron, Isle of Rhe', etc. 
* History of the Trade in England: London, 1702, 
t Hat-making was one of the most important manufactures taken into En- 
gland by the refugees. In France it had been almost entirely in the hands 
of the Protestants. They alone possessed the secret of the liquid composition 
which serves to prepare rabbit, hare, and beaver skins, and they alone sup- 
phed the trade vnth fine Caudebec hats in such demand in England and Hol- 
land. After the RcA-ocation most of them went to London, taking with them 
the secret of their art, which was lost to France for more than forty years. 
It was not until the middle of the eighteenth centmy that a French hatter 
named Mathieu, after having long worked in London, stole the secret the ref- 
ugees had carried away, took it back to his country, generously communicated 
it to the Paris hatters, and founded a large manufactory in the Faubourg St. 

li 



258 HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 

Others introduced the manufe-cture of buttons of wool, silk, 
and metal, which before had been made almost exclusively m 
France. The printing of calicoes was introduced by a refu- 
gee, who established a manufactory for the purpose near 
Richmond. Other print-works were started at Bromley in 
Essex, from whence the manufacture was afterward removed 
into Lancashire. A French refugee named Passavant pur- 
chased the tapestry manufactory at Fulham, originally estab- 
lished by the "Walloons, which had greatly fallen into decay. 
His first attempts at reviving the manufacture not proving 
successful, he removed the works to Exeter, and eventually 
made them prosper with the assistance of some workmen 
whom he obtained from the Gobelins at Paris. 

But the most important branch of manufacture to which 
the refugees dovoted themselves, and in which they achieved 
both fame and wealth, was the silk manufacture in all its 
branches. The silk fabrics of France — its satins, its brocades, 
velvets, padausoys, figured and plain — were celebrated 
throughout the world, and were eagerly, purchased. As 
much as 200,000 livres worth of black lustrings were bought 
by the English annually, made expressly for their market, 
and known as " English taffeties." Shortly after the Revo- 
cation, not only was the whole of this fabric made in En- 
gland, but large quantities were manufactured for exporta- 
tion abroad. 

The English government had long envied France her pos- 
session of the silk manufacture, which gave employment to a 
large number of her people, and was a great source of wealth 
to the country. An attempt was made in the reign of Eliza- 
beth to introduce the manufacture in England, and it was re- 
peated in the reign of James'L The king issued instructions 
to the deputy lieutenants of counties that they should re- 
quire the landowners to' purchase and plant mulberry-trees 

Antoine. Before this lucky larceny, the Prench nobility, and all persons 
making pretensions to elegance in dress, wore none but English hats ; and 
the Roman cardinals themselves got their hats from the celebrated manufac- 
tory at Wandswortli estabhshed by the refugees. — Weiss, p. 260. 



THE SILK MANUFA CTURE. 259 

for tlie feeding of silkworms ; and lie granted a license for 
twenty-one years to one William Stallenge to priat a iDook 
of uistractions for their guidance.* It appears that M. de 
Verton, Sieur de la Forest, commissioned by the Mng, travel- 
ed all over the midland and eastern counties selling mulber- 
ry-trees at a low fixed price (65. the hundred), and giving di- 
rections as to their cultivation.! The corporation of the city 
of London also encouraged the first attempts at introducing 
the manufacture; and we find from their records that in 
1609 they admitted to the freedom of the city one Robert 
The^e or Thierry, on account of his skill and invention, and 
as " being the first in England who hath made stuffs of silke, 
the which was made by the silk-worms nourished here in En- 
gland. "J One M. Brumelach was also invited over fr'om 
France, with sundry silk-throwsters, weavers, and dyers, and 
thus a beginning was made in the manufacture ; but it was 
not until the influx of the Protestant refiigees after the Revo- 
cation that the manufacture took root and began to flourish. 
The workmen of Tours and Lyons brought with them the 
arts which had raised the manufactures of France to such a 
height of prosperity. They erected their looms in Spital- 
fields, and there practiced their improved modes of weaving 

* Domestic Papers^ James I., January 5, 1607. The book was entitled 
Instructions for the increasing of vmlberrie-trees and the breeding of silke- 
loormesfor the mahing of silk in this kingdom, whereunto is annexed his Maj- 
esty^ s letter to the^ Lord Lieutenants, etc, : 4to, London, 1609. 

t Doubts seem to have been entertained as to the ability of the Sieur de la 
Forest, on which he addressed the Earl of Salisbmy in a "remonstrance 
against a suspicion of liis ability to fulfill his contract for the supply of mul- 
beny-trees." He stated that he ' ' had in France a nurseiy of 500,000 trees," 
and detailed the pains he had taken in sending for them and inducing the 
people to buy, by showing them spinners of silk at work. Domestic Papers, 
James I., 1609, 110. The remonstrance is in French. 

X The corporation were not alike liberal in other cases ; for we find them, 
in the same year in which they admitted Thierry a freeman and citizen, ex- 
pelling one John Cassell "for using the trade or art of t^visting worsted yam 
in Bai'tholomew Within, in the liberties of the city, he being no freeman, but 
a stranger bom, contrary to the custom of the city. It is therefore thought 
fit, and so ordered by this court, that Mi*. Chamberlain shall forthwith shut 
up the shop-windows of the said John Cassell's shop, and shall remove -within 
a month all his goods, furniture, etc., to other places, which he, promised to 
do." — Corporation jRecwc?s, 1609- 



260 HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 

— turning out large quantitiess of lustrings, velvets, and min- 
gled stuffs of silk and wool, of such excellence as to insure 
for them every where a ready sale. Weiss says that the 
fio-ured silks which proceeded from the London manufac- 
tories were due almost exclusively to the skill and industry 
of three refugees — Lanson, Mariscot, and Monceaux. The 
artist who supplied the designs was another refugee named 
Beaudoin. A common workman named Mongeorge brought 
them the secret, recently discovered at Lyons, of giving 
lustre to silk taffeta ; and Spitalfields thenceforward enjoyed 
a large share of. the trade for which Lyons had he«i so 
famous.* 

To protect the English manufactures, the import duties on 
French silks were at first trebled. In 1692, five years after 
the Revocation, the manufacturers of lustrings and alamode 
silks were incorporated by charter under the name of the 
Royal Lustring Company ; shortly after which, they obtained 
from Parliament an act entirely prohibiting the importation 
of foreign goods of like sorts. Strange to say, one of the 
grounds on which they claimed this degree of protection was, 
that the manufacture of these articles in England had now 
reached a greater degree of perfection than was attained by 
foreigners — a reason which ought to have rendered them in- 
dependent of all legislative interference in their favor. Cer- 
tain it is, however, that by the end of the century the French 
manufacturers in England were not only able to supply the 
whole of the English demand, but to export considerable 
quantities of their goods to those countries which France 
had formerly supplied. 

One of the most remunerative branches of business was 
the manufacture of silk stockingsf, in which the English 

* Weiss, p. 253. * 

t The first pair of silk stockings brought into England from Spain was pre- 
sented to Henry VIII., who highly, prized them. In the third year of Eliza- 
beth's reign, her tiring-woman, Mrs. Montague, presented her with a paii- of 
black silk stockings as a New Year's gift ; whereupon her majesty asked if 
she could have any more, in which case she would wear no more cloth stock- 
ings. Silk stockings were equally rare things in the royal court of Scotland, 



SILK STOCKING TRADE. 261 

shared with, the French artisans. This trade was due to the 
invention of the stocking-frame by William Lee, M.A., about 
the year 1600. l^ot being able to find any encouragement 
for his invention in England, he went over to Rouen in 1605, 
on the invitation of the French minister Sully, to instruct the 
French operatives in the construction and working of the 
machine. Nine of the frames were in full work, and Lee en- 
joyed the prospect of honor and competency, when, unhap- 
pily for him, his protector, Henry IV., was assassinated by the 
fanatic Ravaillac. The patronage which had been extended 
to him was at once withdrawn, on which Lee proceeded to 
Paris to press his claims upon the government. But he had 
the misfortune to be a foreigner, and, worse than all, a Prot- 
estant ; so his claims were disregarded, and he shortly after 
died at Paris in extreme distress. 

Two of Lee's machines were left at Rouen ; the rest were 
brought over to England ; and in course of time considerable 
improvements were made in the invention. The stocking- 
trade became so considerable a branch of business, that ia 
1654 we find the framework-knitters petitioning Oliver Crom- 
well to grant them a charter of incorporation. The memori- 
alists set forth the great utility of the knitting-frame, its ex- 
quisite workmanship, and the value of the materials it turned 
out. " Not only," say they, " is it able to serve your high- 
ness's dominions with the commodities it mercantably works, 
but also the neighboring countries round about, where it has 
gained so good repute that the vent thereof is now more for- 
eign than domestic, and has .di*awn covetous eyes upon it, to 
undermine it here, and to transport it beyond the seas."* The 

for it appears that before James "VT. received the embassadors sent to con- 
gratulate him on his accession to the English throne, he requested one of the 
lords of his court to lend him his pair of silken hose, that he "might not ap- 
pear as a scrub before strangers." 

* The memorialists refer to the two stocking-frames of Lee's construction 
left at Rouen, with their workmen, and saj — " Of the two which remained in 
Erance, only one is yet surviving ; but so far short of the perfection of his 
trade (as it is used here), that of him, or what can be done by him, or his 
means, these petitioners are in no apprehension of fear." The petitioners go 
on to ascribe to Divine Providence the good fortune that has hitherto attend- 



262 EUG UENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 

Protector did not grant the prayer of the framework-knitters 
that he would confer on them the monopoly of manufacture 
which they sought ; accordingly, when the French refugees 
settled among us, they were as free to make use of Lee's in- 
vention as the English themselves were. Hence the manu- 
facture of silk hosiery by the stocking-frame shortly became 
a leading branch of trade in Spitalfields, and English hose 
were in demand all over Europe. Keysler, the traveler, writ- 
ing as late as 1730, remarks that "at Naples, when a trades- 
man would highly recommend his silk stockings, he invari- 
ably protests that they are right English." 

In a petition presented to Parliament by the "Weavers' 
Company in 1713, it was stated that, owing to the encour- 
agement afforded by the crown and by divers acts of the 
Legislature, the silk manufacture at that time was twenty 
times greater in amount than it had been in 1664; that all 
sorts of black and colored silks, gold and silver stuffs, and 
ribbons, were made here as good as those of French fabric ; 
that bla-ck silk for hoods and scarfs, which, twenty-five years 
before, was all imported, was now made here to the annual 
value of £300,000, whereby a great increase had been occa- 
sioned in the exportation of woolen and other manufactured 
goods to Turkey and Italy, whence the raw silk was imported. 
Such, among others, were the effects of the settlement in Lon- 
don of the French refugee artisans. 

Although the manufacture of glass had been introduced 
into England before the arrival of the French refugees, it 
made comparatively small progress until they took it in 
hand. The first glass-work in London was begun by a Vene- 
tian, in Crutched Friars Hall, in 1564, after which two Flem- 

ed their labors, and congratulate themselves on having concealed their mys- 
tery fi'om "the nimble spirits of the French, the fertile wits of the Italians, 
and the industrious inclination of the Dutch." Their commercial success, 
they add, "has vindicated our nation against that old proverbial expression, 
The stranger buys of the Englishman the case of the Fox for a groat, and 
sells him the tail again for a shilling ; for we may now invert the saying, and 
retort that the Englishman buys silk of the stranger for twenty marks, and 
sells him the same again for one hundred pounds,''^ 



REFUGEE GLASS -MAKERS. 



ings, driven over by the persecutions in the Low Countries, 
started a second glass-work at Greenwich in 1567;* but Mi\ 
Pellatt, in his lecture on the manufacture of glass, delivered 
before the E-oyal Institution, attributes the establishment of 
the manufacture to the French Protestant refugees, most of 
the technical terms still used in glass-making being derived 
from the French. f Thus the "found" is the melting of the 
materials into glass, from the French word fondre. The 
"siege" is the place or seat in which the crucible stands. 
The " kirmey" is the corner of the furnace, probably from coin 
or cheminee. The "journey," denoting the time of making 
glass from the beginning of the " found," is obviously from 
jouniie. The " f(5ushart," or fork used to move the sheet 
of glass into the annealing -kiln, is from fourchette. The 
" marmre" is the slab, formerly of marble, but now of iron, 
on which the ball of hot glass is rolled. And so on with 
"cullet" {coule — glass run off, or broken glass), "pontil" 
(point^e), and other words obviously of French and Flemish 
origin. 

The first French glass-makers who came into England be- 
gan their operations in Savoy House in the Strand ; but they 

* See Appendix I. — Immigration of Flemish ajid other foreign artisans into 
England. 

t It appears, from documents in the State Paper Office (Dom. Eliz.^ 9th of 
August, 1567), that two refugees, Antoine Bequer and Jean Quarre', petitioned 
the queen for permission to estabhsh works for the making of all such sort of 
table-glass as was then brought into England "out of Burgundy, Lorrayne, 
and France." They offered to pay the same duties as were levied on foreign 
glass, and to bind themselves "to retain Eughshmen in their semce, and 
teach them the art of maldng glass, " provided only they were not required 
to retain more than were found needful for the pm-pose of the manufacture. 
The privilege sought was granted by the queen for twenty- one years; and 
the two first furnaces were required to be erected and set to work within a 
year from the date of the grant. Bequer and Quarre' appear to have com- 
menced their operations within the stipulated period, for we find that on the 
6th of September, 1568, they memoriahzed the queen for permission to cut 
wood to make charcoal in Windsor Great Park, and to convey it from thence 
to their glass factory. This application, most probably, was unsuccessful, for 
nearly six years later the Bishop of Chichester incidentally mentions, in one 
of his letters (25th of Apiil, 1574) to the Lord Treasm-er Burghley, that there 
was " a combination to rob the French glass-makers ;" and it would seem that 
they had established themselves in Sussex, which in the 16th century was one 
of the most wooded counties in England. 



264 HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 

afterward removed into Sussex, because of the greater conven- 
iency of finding fuel ; and the art made such progress there, 
and in other parts of England, that Evelyn, in his Diary, spoke 
of the glass blown in this country as being " of finer metal 
than that of Murano at Venice." The Parisian glass-makers 
were especially celebrated for the skill with which they cast 
large plates for mirrors ; and, shortly after the Revocation, 
when a large number of these valuable workmen took refuge 
in England, a branch of that manufacture was established by 
Abraham Thevenart, which proved highly successful. Other 
works were started for the making of crystal, in which the 
French greatly excelled ; and before long, not only were they 
able to supply the home market, but to ex.port large quanti- 
ties of glass wares of various sorts to Holland and other Eu- 
ropean countries. 

For the improvement of the English paper manufacture, 
also, we are largely indebted to the refugees — to the Protest- 
ant employers and artisans who swarmed over to England 
from the paper-mills of Angoumois. Before the Revocation, 
the paper made in this country was of the common " whitey- 
brown" sort — coarse and inelegant. All the best sorts were 
imported from abroad, mostly from France. But shortly aft- 
er the Revocation the import of paper ceased, and the refu- 
gees were able to suj^ply us with as good an article as could 
be bought elsewhere. The first manufactory for fine paper 
was established by the refugees in London in 1685 ; but oth- 
er mills were shortly after started by them in Kent — at Maid- 
stone and along the Darent — as well as in other parts of En- 
gland.* That the leading workmen employed in the first fine 

* The Patent Office records clearly show the acti^dty of the French exiles 
in the province of invention, in the numerous patents taken out by them for 
printing, spinning, weaving, paper-making, and other arts. Such names as 
Blondeau, Dupin, De Cardonels, Le Blon, Ducleu, Pousset, Gastineau, Cou- 
ran, Paul, etc., ai-e found constantly recurring in the lists of patentees for many 
years subsequent to the Revocation. In 1686 we find M, Dupin, A. de Car- 
donels, C. R. M. de Grouchy, J. de May, and R. Shales taking out a patent 
for makiug' writing and printing paper, having "lately brought out of France 
excellent workmen, and already set up several new-invented mills and engines 
for making thereof, not heretofore used in England." — [See Abridgment of 
Specifications relating to Printing, p! 82.] 



THE DE PORTALS. 265. 



paper-mills were French and Flemish is shown by the distinc- 
tive terms of the trade still in use. Thus, in Kent, the man 
who lays the sheets on the felts is the coucher ; the fateman, 
or vatman,is the YlQxmBh. fassman j and the room where the 
finishing operations are performed is still called the salle. 

One of the most distinguished of the refugee paper manu- 
facturers was Henry de Portal The Portals were an ancient 
and noble family in the south of France, of Albigeois descent, 
who stood firm by the faith of their fathers, and several of 
them suffered death rather than prove recreant to it. Tou- 
louse was for many generations the home of the Portals, where 
they held and exercised the highest local authority. Several 
of them in succession were elected " Capitoul," a position of 
great dignity and power in that city. When the persecution 
of the Albigeois set in, the De Portals put themselves at their 
head; but they were unable to make head against the tre- 
mendous power of the Inquisition, and they fled from Toulouse 
in different directions — some to Nismes, and others into the 
neighborhood of Bordeaux. Some of them jDerished in the 
massacres which occuiTed throughout France subsequent to 
the night of the Saint Bartholomew at Paris ; and they con- 
tinued to suffer during the long century that ended in the 
Revocation, yet still they remamed constant to their faith. 

When the reign of terror under Louis XIV". began in the 
south of France, Louis de Portal was residing at his Chateau 
de la Portalerie, seven leagues from Bordeaux. To escape 
the horrors of the dragonnades, he set out with his wife and 
five children to take refuge on his estate in the Cevennes. 
The dragoons pursued the family to their retreat, overtook 
them, cut down the father and mother and one of the children, 
and burnt to the ground the house in which they had taken 
refuge. The remaining four children had concealed them- 
selves in an oven outside the building, and were thus saved. 

The four orphans — ^three boys and a girl — immediately de- 
termined to make for the coast and escape from France by 
sea. * After a long and perilous journey on foot, exhausted by 



266 EUG UENO T SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 

fatigue and wanting food, they at length reached Montauban, 
where little Pierre, the youngest, fell down fainting with hun- 
ger at the door of a baker's shop. The humane baker took 
up the child, carried him into the house, and fed and cherished 
him. The other three — Henry, William, and Mary de Portal 
— ^though grieving to leave their brother behind them, again 
set out on foot, and pressed forward to Bordeaux. 

There they were so fortunate as to secure a passage by a 
merchant vessel, on board of which they were shipped con- 
cealed in barrels. They were among the last of the refugees 
who escaped previous to the issue of the infamous order to 
fumigate all departing vessels, so as to stifle any Protestant 
fugitives who might be concealed among the cargo. The 
youthful refugees reached Holland, where they found friends 
and foster parents, and were shortly in a position to assert the 
dignity of their birth. Miss Portal succeeded in obtaining a 
situation as governess in the family of the Countess of Fink- 
enstein, and afterward married M. Lenornant, a refugee set- 
tled at Amsterdam ; while Henry and William followed the 
fortunes of the Prince of Orange, accompanying him into En- 
gland, and establishing the family of De Portal in this coun- 
try.* 

Henry, the elder brother, having learned the art of paper- 
making, started a mill of his own at Laverstoke, on the Itch- 
in, near Whitchurch in Hampshire, where he achieved high 
reputation as a paper manufacturer. He carried on his busi- 
ness with great spirit, gathering round him the best French 
and Dutch workmen ; and he shortly brought his work to so 
high a degree of perfection that the Bank of England gave 
him the privilege, which a descendant of the family still en- 
joys, of supplying them with the paper for bank-notes.f 

* William entered the Church late in life. He was nominated tutor to 
Prince George, afterward George III., and held the livings of Clowne in Der- 
byshire, and Fambridge in Essex. Abraham Portal, whose poetic works 
were pubUshed in 1781, was his grandson. 

t William Cobbett, writing in 1825, says, "Prom this to Whitchurch is not 
more than about four miles, and we soon reached it, because here you *egin 
to descend into the vale in which this httle town lies, and through which there 



DE PORTAL FAMILY, 267 

Henry de Portal had resolved to rebuild the fortunes of his 
house, though on English ground, and nobly he did it by his 
skill, his integrity, and his industry. The De Portals of 
Freefolk Priors re-established themselves among the aristo- 
cratic order to which they originally belonged, and sons and 
daughters of the family formed alliances with some of the 
noblest famihes in England. The youngest brother, Pierre 
de Portal, who had been left fainting at the door of the baker 
at Montauban, was brought up to manhood by the baker, 
held to his Protestantism, and eventually set up as a cloth 
manufacturer in France. He prospered, married, and his 
sons grew up around him, one of1:hem eventually becoming 
Lord of Penardieres. His grandson Alber^des, also faithful 
to the creed of his fathers, rose to high office, having been ap- 
pointed minister of marine and the colonies, councilor of state, 
and a peer of France, at the restoration of the Bourbons. 
The present baron, Pierre Paul Frederick de Portal, main- 
tains the ancient reputation of the family ; and to his highly 
interesting work, entitled JOes Descendants des Alhigeois et 
des Huguenots^ ou Memoires de la Famille de Portal (Paris, 
1860), we are mainly indebted for the above facts relating to 
the family. 

Various other branches of manufacture were either estab- 
lished or greatly improved by the refugees. At Canterbury 
they swelled the ranks of thd silk manufacturers, so much so 
that in 1694 they possessed 1000 looms, giving employment 

iTins that stream which turns the mill of Squire Portal, and which mill makes 
the Bank of England note-paper. Talk of the Thames and the Hudson, with 
their forests of masts ; talk of the Nile and the Delaware hearing the food of 
miUions on theu' bosoms ; talk of the Eio de la Plata and the other rivers, 
their beds pebbled with silver, and gold, and diamonds ! What, as to their 
effect on the condition of mankind — as to the virtues, the vices, the enjoy- 
ments, and the suiFerings of men — ^what are all these rivers put together com- 
pared with the river at Whitchm'ch, which a man of threescore may jump 
across dry-shod, which moistens a quarter of a mile ^vide of poor, rushy 

meadow and which is, to look at it, of far less importance than any 

gutter in the Wen ! Yet this river, by merely turning a wheel — ^which wheel 
sets some rag-tearers, and grinders, and washers, and recompressors in mo- 
tion — has produced a greater effect on the condition of men than has been 
produced by aU the other rivers, all the seas, all the mines, and all the conti- 
nents in the world." — Rural Rides, p. 308-9. 



2G8 HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 

to nearly 3000 workmen — though, for the convenience of the 
trade, the greater number of them subsequently removed to 
Spitalfields. Many of the immigrants also found their way 
to Norwich, where they carried on with great success the 
manufacture of lustrings, brocades, paduasoys, tabinets, and 
velvets, while others carried on the making of cutlery, clocks, 
and watches. The fifty years that followed the settlement 
of the French refugees m IS'orwich was the most prosperous 
period known in the history of that city. Another body of 
refugees settled at Ipswich in 1681, where they began the 
manufacture of fine linen, before then imported from France. 
The elders and deacons of the French church in Threadneedle 
Street raised the necessary funds for their support until they 
could maintain themselves by their industry. They were or- 
ganized and superintended by a refugee from Paris named 
Bonhomme,* one of the most skilled manufacturers in France. 
To the manufacture of lineii, one of sail-cloth was added, and 
England was shortly enabled entirely to dispense with any 
farther supply of the foreign-made article. 

The lace manufacture, introduced originally by the Wal- 
loon refugees, was also greatly increased and improved by 
the influx of Huguenot lace-makers, principally from Bur- 
gundy and Normandy. Some established themselves in Lon- 
don, and others betook themselves to the adjoining counties, 
settling at Buckingham, Newport-Pagnell, and Stony Strat- 
ford, from whence the manufacture extended into Oxford, 
NorthamjDton, Cambridge, and the adjoining counties. f 

Some of the exiles went as far north as Scotland, and set- 

* In 1681, Savil wrote from Paris to Jenkins, then Secretary of State, to 
announce the approaching departure of Bonhomme and all his family, add- 
ing, " This man will be able to give you some lights into the method of bring- 
ing the manufacture of sail-cloth in England." 

t Speaking of Bedfordshire, De Foe, in his Tour through the whole Island 
of Great Britain, wiites, " Through the whole south part of this countiy, as 
far as the borders of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, the people ai-e taken 
up with the manufacture of bone-lace, in which they are wonderfully exercised 
and improved vnthin these few years past," most probably in consequence of 
the an-ival of the French settlers after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
— Mb-B. Palliser — History ofLace^ p. 353. 



REFUGEE INDUSTRY. 269 

tied there. Thus a colony of weavers from Picardy, in 
France, began the manufacture of linen in a suburb of Edin- 
burg near the head of Leith Walk, long after known as 
" Little Picardy" — the name still surviving in Picardy Place.* 
Others of them built a silk factory, and laid out a mulberry 
plantation on the slope of Moultrie Hill, then an open com- 
mon. The refugees were sufficiently numerous in Edinburg 
to form a church, of which the Rev. Mr. Dupont was minis- 
ter ; and William HI., in 1693, granted to the city a duty of 
two pennies on each pint of ale, out of which 2000 merks 
were to be paid yearly toward the maintenance of the min- 
isters of the French congregation. At Glasgow, one of the 
French refugees succeeded in establishing a paper-mill, the 
iirst in that part of Scotland. The Huguenot who erected it 
escaped from France accompanied only by his little daughter. 
For some time after his arrival in Glasgow he maintained 
himself by picking up rags in the streets. But, by dint of 
thrift and diligence, he eventually contrived to accumulate 
means sufficient to enable him to start his paper-mill, and 
thus to lay the foundation of an important branch of Scottish 
industry. 

In short, there was scarcely a branch of trade in Great 
Britain but at once felt the beneficial effects of the large in- 
flux of experienced workmen from France. Besides improv- 
ing those manufactures which had already been established, 
they introduced many entirely new branches of industry; 
and by their skill and intelligence, and their laboriousness, 
they richly repaid England for the hospitality and the asy- 
lum which had been so generously extended to them in their 
time of need. 

* It has been surmised that Burdie House — a corruption of Bordeaux 
House, near Edinburg, was so called because inhabited by another body of 
French refugees at the same period. But this is a mistake : the place hav- 
ing been so called by the Frenchman who built the original house — ^most 
probably one of the followers of Maiy Stuart, on her coming over to Scotland 
to take possession of the Scottish throne. The village of "Little France," 
near Craigmillar Castle, the residence of Queen Maiy, was so called from be- 
ing the quarters of her French guards. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE HUGUENOT CHUKCHES IN ENGLAND. 

The vast number of French Protestants who fled into En- 
gland on the Revocation of the Edict of Kantes led to a 
large increase in the number of French churches. This was 
especially the case in London, which was the principal seat 
of the immigration. It may serve to give the reader an idea 
of the large admixture of Huguenot blood in the London pop- 
ulation when we state that about the beginning of last cen- 
tury, at which time the population of the metropolis was not 
one fourth of what it is now, there were no fewer than thir- 
ty-five French churches in London and the suburbs.* Of 
these, eleven were in Spitalfields, showing the preponderance 
of the French settlers in that quarter. • 

The French church in Threadneedle Street, the oldest in 
London, was in a manner the cathedral church of the Hugue- 
nots. Thither the refugees usually repaired on their arrival 
in London, and such of them as had temporarily abjured 
their faith before flying, to avoid the penalty of death or con- 
demnation to the galleys, made acknowledgment of their re- 
pentance, and were again received into membership. During 
the years immediately following the Revocation, the consist- 
oiy of the French Church met at least once in every week in 
Threadneedle Street chapel for the purpose of receiving such 
acknowledgments or " reconnaissances." The ministers heard 
the narrative of the trials of the reftigees, examined their tes- 
timony, and, when judged worthy, received them into com- 
munion. At the sitting of the 5th of March, 1686, fifty fugi- 
tives from various jDrovinces of France abjured the Roman 
Catholic religion, to which they had pretended to be convert- 

* Mr. Bum, in his History of the Foreign Protestant Refugees, gives the 
names of nearly forty French churches in London ; but several of these were 
old churches merely translated or rebuilt vith new names. 



CHUR CHES IN L OND ON. 271 

ed; and at one of the sittings in May, 1687, not fewer than 
497 members were again received into the church which they 
had pretended to abandon.* 

While the church in Threadneedle Street was thus resort- 
ed to by the Huguenot Calvinists, the French Episcopal 
church in the Savoy, opened about the year 1641, was simi- 
larly resorted to by the foreign Protestants of the Lutheran 
persuasion. This was the fashionable French church of the 
West End, and was resorted to by many of the nobility, who 
were attracted by the eloquence of the preachers who usual- 
ly ministered there,f among whom we recognize the great 
names of Durrel, Severin, Abbadie, Saurin, Dubourdieu, Ma- 
jendie, and Durand. There were also the following French 
churches in the western parts of London : the chapel of 
Marylebone, founded about the year 1656; the chapel, in 
Somerset House, originally granted by Charles L to his queen 
Henrietta as a Roman Catholic place of worship, but which 
was afterward appropriated by Parliament, in 1653, for the 
use of the French Protestants ; Castle Street Chapel, in Lei- 
cester Square, erected at the expense of the government in 
1672 as a place of worship for the refugees ; the Little Savoy 
Chapel in the Strand, granted for the same purpose in 1675 ; 
and Hungei-ford Chapel in Hungerford Market, which was 
opened as a French church in 1687. 

After the Kevolution of 1688, a considerable addition was 
made to the French churches at the West End. Thus three 
new congregations were formed in the year 1689 — those of 
La Patente, in Soho, first opened in Berwick Street, from 
whence it was afterward removed to Little Chapel Street, 
Wardour Street ; Glass House Chapel, Golden Square, from 

* We find the following entry relating to the same subject in the Registei- 
of Glass House Street Chapel: "Le Dimanche, 13 May, 1G88, Elizabeth 
Cautin de St. Martin de Retz, Susanne Cellier et Marie CeUier sa Souer de la 
Rochelle ont fait recognoissance publique au presche du Matin, I'une pom- 
avoir este au Sermon feignant d'estre de I'Eglise Romaine, les autres deux 
po*" avoir signe leur Abjuration. Mon*"- Coutet les a receues." 

t Evelyn mentions his attending it in 1649, thefollowing entry appealing 
in his journal of that year : "In the afternoon I went to the French church 
in the Savoy, where I heard M. d'Espagne catechize." 



272 HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 

whence it was afterward removed to Leicester Fields ; and 
La Quarre (Episcopal) Chapel, originally of Berwick Street, 
and afterward of Little Dean Street, Westminster. 

Another important French chnrch at the West End was 
that of Swallow Street, Piccadilly.* This congregation had 
origmally worshiped in the French embassador's chapel in 
Monmouth House, Soho Square, from whence they removed 
to Swallow Street in 1690. From the records of the church, 
which are preserved at Somerset House, it would appear that 
Swallow Street was also in the west what Threadneedle 
Street Church was in the east of London — the place first re- 
sorted to by the refugee Protestants to make acknowledg- 
ment of their backslidings, and claim readmission to church 
membership. Hence the numerous " reconnaissances" found 
recorded in the Swallow Street register. The following is a 
specimen : " On Friday, the first day of the year 1692, Claude 
Richier, a refugee from Montpellier, has given testimony in 
presence of this church of his repentance at having succumb- 
ed to the pressure of persecution in abjuring our holy relig- 
ion, which he has confirmed by signing this present record." 
There are also entries of conversions, of which the following 
is an instance : " On Sunday, the fifth day of May, the day of 
Pentecost e, Susan Auvray, a native of Paris, has made public 
abjuration in this church of the errors arid superstitions of 
Papism, after having given proofs of solid instruction, of her 
piety and good morals, which she has confirmed by signing 
this record."! 

About the year 1 700, there was another large increase in 
the number of French churches in London, six more being 
added to those already specified, namely, L'Eglise du Taber- 
nacle, afterward removed to Leicester Fields Chapel; the 
French Chapel Royal, St. James's ; Les Grecs, in Hog Lane,J 

* The chapel was sold to Dr. James Anderson in 1710, and is now used as 
a Scotch church. 

t See Appendix, Registers of French Churches in England. 

% Hogarth has given a fepresentation of the old chapel in Hog Lane, in his 
picture of "Noon," and the figure coming out of the chapel is said to have 



SUBURBAN FRENCH CHURCHES. 273 

now Crown Street, Solio ; Spring Gardens Chapel, or the Lit- 
tle Savoy ; La Charenton, in Grafton Street, Newport Mar- 
ket ; and La Tremblade, or West Street Chapel, St. Giles's. 
About the same date, additional church accommodation was 
provided for the refugees in the city, one chapel having been 
opened in Blackfriars, and another in St. Martin's Lane, of 
which the celebrated Dr. Alhx was for some time pastor. 
With the latter chapel, known as the church of St. Martin 
Ongars, that of Threadneedle Street was eventually united. 

But the principal increase in the French churches about 
this time was in the eastern parts of London, where the refu- 
gees of the manufacturing class had for the most part settled. 
The large influx of foreign Protestants is strikingly shown by 
the amount of new chapels required for their accommodation. 
Thus, in Spitalfields and the adjoining districts, we find the 
following : L'Eglise de St. Jean, Swan Fields, Shoreditch 
(16 8 7); La Nouvelle Patente, Crispin Street, Spitalfields 
(1689) ; L'Eglise de I'Artillerie, Artillery Street, Bishopsgate 
(1691) ;* L'Eglise de Crispm Street, Spitalfields (1693) \ Pet- 
ticoat Lane Chapel, Spitalfields* (1694); L'Eglise de Perle 
Street, Spitalfields (1697), afterward incorporated with Cris- 
pin Street Chajjel; the French Church of Wapping (1700); 
L'Eglise de Bell Lane, Spitalfields (1700) ; L'Eglise de Whel- 
er Street, Spitalfields (1703), afterward incorporated with La 
Nouvelle Patente ; L'Eglise de Swan Fields, Slaughter Street, 
Shoreditch (1721) ; L'Eglise de I'Hopital, afterward L'Eglise 
Neuve, Church Street, Spitalfields (1 742). Here we have no 

been a very good likeness of the Eev. Thomas Herve, who was minister there 
from about 1727 to 1731. This chapel, as the representative of the Savoy, 
has been considered as the mother-chui-ch of the French congregations at the 
West End of London. The congi-egations of the Savoy, Les Grecs, and 
Spring Gardens were united — the two former about 1721, and the latter sub- 
sequently. The congregation of La Patente en Soho was also united at a 
later period. — Burn — History of Foreign Protestant Refugees, 114. 

* This church boasted of some of the most eloquent French preachers in 
the metropolis. Among these may be mentioned Cassar Pegorier, the first 
minister of the congregation ; and among his successors were Daniel Chamier, 
PieiTe Kival, Joseph de la Mothe, Ezekiel Bai'bauld, Jacob Bourdillon, all 
men of high repute in their time. 

s 



274: HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 

fewer than eleven French churches opened east of Bishops- 
gate Street, providing accommodation for a very large num- 
ber of worshipers. The church last named, L'Eglise !N"euve, 
was probably the largest of the French places of worship in 
London, being capable of accommodating about 1500 persons. 
It is now used as a chapel by the Wesleyan Methodists, 
while the adjoiniug church of the Artillery is used as a poor 
Jews' synagogue. 

In addition to the French churches in the city, at the West 
End, and in the Spitalfields district, there were several thriv- 
ing congregations in the suburban districts of London in 
which the reftigees had settled. One of the oldest of these 
was that of Wandsworth, where a colony of Protestant Wal- 
loons settled about the year 1570. Having formed them- 
selves into a congregation,. they erected a chapel for worship, 
which is still standing, nearly opposite the parish church. 
The building bears this inscription on its front: "Erected 
1573 — enlarged 1685 — repaired 1809, 1831." Like the other 
refugee churches, it has ceased to retain its distinctive char- 
acter, being now used as a Congregational chapel. The 
French there had also a special burying-ground, situated at 
the London entrance to Wandsworth, in which several dis- 
tinguished refugees have been interred — among others, David 
Montolieu, Baron de St. Hyppolite, in 1761, aged ninety-three. 

Several other French churches were established in the sub- 
urbs after the Revocation. At Chelsea the refugees had two 
chapels — one in Cook's Grounds (now used by the Congrega- 
tionalists), and another in Little Chelsea. There were French 
churches also at Hammersmith, at Hoxton,* at Bow, and at 
Greenwich. The last named was erected through the influ- 
ence of the Marquis de Ruvigny, who formed the centre of a 
select circle of refugee Protestants, who long continued to 
live in the neighborhood. Before their little church was 

* Of this church Jacob BourdiUon was the last pastor. Among the names 
appearing in the Begister' are those of Eomilly, Cossart, Faure, Durand, 
Hankey, Vidal, and Pargues. 



CANTJSJRB URY AND SO UTHAMPTON. 275 

ready for use, the refugees were allowed the use of the parish 
church at the conclusion of the forenoon service on Sundays. 
Evelyn, in his Diary, makes mention of his attending the 
French service there in 168T, as well as the sermon which 
followed, in which he says, " The preacher pathetically ex- 
horted to patience, constancy, and reliance on God, amidst all 
their sufferings." The French church, which was afterward 
erected in London Street, not far from the parish church, is 
now used as a Baptist chapeL 

The other French chapels throughout the kingdom, like 
those of London, received a large accession of members after 
the Revocation of the Edict of I>rantes, and in many cases he- 
came too small for their accommodation. Hence a second 
French church was opened at Canterbury in a place called 
" The Malthouse,"* situated within the cathedral precincts. 
It consisted at first of about 300 persons ; but the Canterbury 
silk trade having become removed to Spitalfields, the greater 
number of the French weavers followed it thither, on which 
the Malthouse Chapel rapidly fell off, and at length became 
extinct about the middle of last century. 

The old French church of "G-od's House" at Southampton 
also received a considerable accession of members, chiefly fu- 
gitives from the provinces of the opposite sea-board. The 
original Walloon element had by this time almost entirely 
disappeared, the immigrants of a century before having be- 
come gradually absorbed into the native population. Hence 
nearly all the entries in the registers of the church subse- 
quent to the year 1685 describe the members as"Fran9ois 
refiigiez," some being fi-om " Basse Normandie," others from 
" Haute Languedoc," but the greater number from the prov- 
ince of Poitou. 

Numerous reftigee military officers, retired from active 

* See Appendix — Records of Huguenot Churches in England. The Rev. 
M, Charpentier was one of the early ministers of the Malthouse Chapel. In 
a petition to the Archbishop of Canterbury he states that his family had suf- 
fered veiy much for the Protestant rehgion, especially his father, who was put 
to death by the dragoons, and died a martyr in the year 1683. — Burn, p. 53. 



276 HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 

service, seem to have settled in tlie neighborhood of South- 
ampton about the beginning of last century. Henry de Ru- 
vigny, the venerable Earl of Galway, then lived at Rookley, 
and formed the centre of a distinguished circle of refugee 
gentry. The Baron de Huningue also lived in the town, and 
was so much respected and beloved that at his death he was 
honored with a public funeral.* We also find the families of 
the De Chavernays and De Cosnes settled in the place. The 
register of " God's House" contains frequent entries relating 
to officers in " Colonel Mordant's regunent." On one occa- 
sion,we find Brigadier Mordant standing sponsor for the twin 
sons of Major Fran9ois du Chesne de Rufianes, major of in- 
fantry ; and on another, the Earl of Galway standing sponsor 
for the infant son of Pierre de Cosne, a refugee gentleman of 
La Beauce. From the circumstance of Gerard de Yaux, the 
owner of a paper-mill in South Stoneham, being a member of 
the congregation, we also infer that several of the settlers in 
the neighborhood of Southampton were engaged in that 
branch of manufacture. 

Among the new French churches formed in places where 
before there had been none, and which mark the new settle- 
ments made by the fresh influx of refugees, may be mentioned 
those of Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Stonehouse, Dartmouth, 
Barnstaple, and Thorpe-le-Soken in Essex. 

The French Episcopal Church at Bristol seems at one time 
to have been of considerable importance. It was instituted 
in 1687, and was first held in what is called the Mayor's 
Chapel of St. Mark the Gaunt; but in 1726 a chapel was 
built for the special use of the French congregation on the 
ground of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital for the Red Maids, sit- 
uated in Orchard Street. The chapel, at its first opening, was 
so crowded with worshipers, that the aisles, as well as the 
altar-place, had to be fitted with benches for their accommo- 
dation. From the register of the church, it would api^ear 
that the refugees consisted principally of seafaring persons — 
* See Appendix — Records of Huguenot Churches in England. 



PLYMOUTH, THORPE -LE-SOKEN, ETC. 271 

caj)tains, masters, and sailors — cMefly from Nantes, Sain- 
tonge, Boclielle, and the Isle of Rhe. 

The congregations formed at Plymouth and Stonehoiise,* 
as well as Dartmouth, were in like manner for the most part 
composed of sailors, while those at Exeter, on the other hand, 
were principally trades-people and artisans employed in the 
tapestry manufacture carried on in that city. M. Majendie, 
grandfather of Dr. Majendie, bishop of Chester, was one of 
the ministers of the Exeter congregation ; and Tom D'Urfey, 
the song- writer, was the son of one of the refugees settled in 
the place. 

The settlement at Thorpe-le-Soken, in Essex, seems to have 
been a comparatively small one, consisting principally of ref- 
ugee gentry and farmers; but they were in sufficient num- 
bers to constitute a church, of which M. Severin, who after- 
ward removed to Greenwich, was the first minister. The 
church was closed " for want of members" about the year 
1 726. As was the case at many other places, the Thorpe-le- 
Soken refugees gradually ceased to be French. Tear by year 
the foreign churches declined, even though fed, from time to 
time, by fresh immigrations from abroad. It was in the very 
nature of things that the rising generation should fall away 
from them, and desii'e to become completely identified with 
the nation which had admitted them to citizenship. Hence 
the growing defections in country places, as well as in the 
towns and cities where the refugees had settled, and hence 
the growing comj^laints of the falling off in the numbers of 
their congregations which we find in the sermons and ad- 
dresses of the refugee pastors. 

About the middle of last century, the thirty-five French 
churches in London and its suburbs had become reduced to 

* It seems to have been the practice of the minister of the Stonehouse 
chm-ch to require all who were present at baptisms, as well as mamages, to 
sign the register as witnesses ; and as nearly all were able to sign then* names 
— not more than about five in the hundred requiring to sign with a mark — it 
would thereby appear that the refugees were, as a whole, an educated class, 
so far, at least, as elementary instruction was concerned. 



278 HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 

a comparatively small number, and the French pastors were 
foil of lamentations as to the approaching decadence of those 
which remained. This feeling was given eloquent utterance 
to "by the E-ev. Jacob Bourdillon, minister of the Artillery 
Church in Spitalfields, on the occasion of the jubilee sermon 
which he preached there in 1782, in commemoration of his 
fifty years' pastorate.* He had been appointed minister of 
the congregation when it was a large and thriving one in 
1*731, and he now addressed but a feeble remnant of what it 
had been. The old members had died off; but their places 
had not been supplied by the young, who had gone in search 
of other pastures. But it was the same with all the other 
French churches. When he was appointed minister of" The 
Artillery," fifty years before, there had, he said, been twentyf 

* During these fifty years JVT. Bourdillon had to lament the loss of many 
dear ftiends. No fewer than fifty-two pastors of London refugee churches 
had in that time ended their course, and of these, six had been his colleagues. 
The deceased ministers, whose names he gives, and the places in which they 
ministered, are as foUows : 

Chapel Royal, St. James's. — The Rev. Messieurs Menard, Auii-€re, Serces, 
Rocheblave, De Missy, Barbauld, Muisson. 

JTie Savoy. — Olivier, Du Cros, Durand, Deschamps. 

27ie Walloon Church, Threadneedle Street. — Bertheau, Besombes, De St. 
Colombe, Bonyer, Barbauld, Convenant, La Douespe, Duboulai. 

Leicester Fields, Artillei^, and La Patente, — Blanc, Barbauld, Stehelin, 
Mieg, Bamauin. 

La Tremhlade. — Gillet,"Yver. 

Castle Street and La Quarr^. — ^Laval, Bernard, Cantier, Robert, Coderc. 
^ La Patente in Spitalfields. — ^Fourestier, Manuel, Balquerie, Masson. 
' Brown's Lane. — ^Le Moyne. 

St. John Street. — ^Vincent, Palairet, Beuzeville. 

Wapping. — GaJly de Gaujac, Le Beaupin, Say, Guyot, PreUem-. 

Swan Fields. — BrieL 

Pastors of other churches who had died in London — Porent, Majendie, 
Esternod, Montignac, Du Plessis, Villette, Duval. 

Pastors of Prench churches in London who had died abroad — ^Des Manu- 
res, Bobineau, Boullier, Eynard, Dagneau, Marcombe, Patron, RomiHy. 

t Prom this it would appear that a considerable number of the Prench 
churches which existed in London at the beginning of the century had either 
been closed or become united with others. The Prench churches closed be- 
tween 1731 and 1782, when this sermon was preached, were these : The 
chm'ch of the Savoy (La Grande), Spring Gardens, Rider's Court, La Trem- 
hlade, Castle Street, Wheeler Street, Crispin Sti*eet, Swan Pields, and Mary- 
lebone. The churches which still survived were these : St. James's, Les 
Grecs, Leicester Pields, La Patente, Le Quarr^, Threadneedle Street (Lon- 
dres), L'Eglise Neuve, St. Martin, L'Artillerie, La Patente, and St. Jean 



DECADENCE OF THE CHURCHES. 279 

flourisliiiig Frencli churches in London, nine af which had 
since been altogether closed ; while of the remaining eleven 
some were fast drawing to their end, others were scarcely 
able to exist even with extraneous help, while very few were 
in a position to support themselves. 

The causes of this decadence of the churches of the refti- 
gees were not far to seek. The preacher found them in " the 
lack of zeal and faithfulness in the heads of families in en- 
couraging their children to maintain them — churches which 
their ancestors had reared, a glorious monument of the gen- 
erous sacrifice which they had made, of their country, their 
possessions, and their employments, in the sacred cause of 
conscience, for the open profession of the truth ; whereas 
now," said he, " through the growiag aversion of the young 
for the language of their fathers, from whom they seem al- 
most ashamed to be descended — shall I say more ? — ^because 
of inconstancy in the principles of the faith, which induces 
so many, by a sort of infatuation, to forsake the ancient as- 
semblies m order to follow novelties unknown to our fathers, 
and listen to pretended teachers whose only gifts are rapture 
and babble, and whose sole inspu-ation consists in self-suffi- 
ciency and pride. Alas ! what ravages have been made here, 
as' elsewhere, during this jubilee of fifty years !" 

But there were other causes besides these to account for 
the decadence of the refugee churches. Nature itself was 
working against them. Year by year the children of the 
refugees were becoming less and less French, and more and 
more English. They lived and worked among the English, 
and spoke their language. They intermarried with them; 
their children played together ; and the idea of remaining 
foreigners in the country in which they had been bom and 
bred became year by year more distasteful to them. They 
were not a "peculiar people," Hke the Jews; but Protest- 
ants, like the nation which had given them refiige, and into 

Street. Of these only three remain in existence, in two of which the ritual 
of the Church of England has been adopted. 



280 HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 

which they naturally desired to become wholly merged. 
Hence it was that hy the end of the eighteenth century near- 
ly all the French churches, as such, had disaj^peared, and the 
•places of the French ministers became occupied in some cases 
by clergymen of the Established Church, and in others by 
ministers of the different dissenting persuasions. 

The Church of the Artillery, in which the Rev. Mr. Bour- 
dillon preached the above sermon so full of lamentations, is 
now occupied as a poor Jews' synagogue. L'Eglise ^STeuve 
is a chapel of the Wesleyan Methodists. L'Eglise de St. 
Jean, Swan Fields, Shoreditch, has become one of the ten new 
churches of St. Matthew, Bethnal Green. Swallow Street 
Chapel is used as a Scotch Church. Leicester Fields, now 
called Orange Street Chapel, is occupied by a congregation 
of Lidependents ; whereas Castle Street Chapel, Leicester 
Square, was, until quite recently, used as a Court of Requests. 

The French churches at Wandsworth and Chelsea are oc- 
cupied by the Independents, and those at Greenwich and 
Plymouth by the Baptists. The Dutch church at Maidstone 
is used as a school, while the Walloon church of Yarmouth 
was first converted into a theatre, and has since done duty 
as a warehouse. 

Among the charitable institutions founded by the refugees 
for the succor of their distressed fellow-countrymen in En- 
gland, the most important was the French Hospital. This 
establishment owes its origin to M. De Gastigny, a French 
gentleman who had been master of the buckhounds to Wil- 
liam HI. in Holland, while Prince of Orange. At his death 
in 1708 he bequeathed a sum of £1000 toward founding a 
hospital in London for the relief of distressed French Prot- 
estants. The money was placed at interest for eight years, 
during which successive benefactions were added to the fund. 
In 1*716, a piece of ground in Old Street, St. Luke's, was pur- 
chased of the Ironmongers' Company, and a lease was taken 
from the city of London of some adjoining land, forming alto- 
gether an area of about four acres, on which a building was 



THE FRENCH HOSPITAL. 281 

erected and fitted up for the reception of eighty poor Prot- 
estants of the French nation. In 1*718, George I. granted a 
charter of incorporation to the governor and directors of the 
hospital, Tinder which the Earl of Galway was appointed the ^ 
first governor. Shortly after, in ISTovemher, 1718, the open- 
ing of the institution was celebrated by a solemn act of re- 
ligion, and the chapel was consecrated amid a great con- 
course of refugees and theii* descendants, the Rev. Philip Me- 
nard, minister of the French chapel of St. James's, conducting 
the service on the occasion. 

From that time the funds of the institution steadily in- 
creased. The French merchants of London, who had been 
prosperous in trade, liberally contributed toward its support, 
and legacies and donations multiplied. Lord Galway be- 
queathed £1000 to the hospital at his death in 1'720 ; and in 
the following year, Baron Hervart de Huningue gave a dona- 
tion of £4000. The corporation were placed in the possession 
of ample means ; and they accordingly proceeded to erect 
additional buildings, in which they were enabled by the year 
1760 to give an asylum to 234 poor people.* 

Among the distinguished noblemen and gentlemen of 
French Protestant descent who have officiated as governors 
of the institution since the date of its foundation may be 
mentioned the Earl of Galway, the Baron de Huningue, Ro- 
bethon (privy councilor), the Baron de la Court, Lord Ligo- 
nier, and several successive Earls of Radnor; while among 
the list of directors we recognize the names of Montolieu, 
Baron de St. Hippolite, Gambier, Bosanquet, Colombies, Ma- 
jendie (D.D.), Colonel de Cosne, Dalbiac, Gaussen, Dargent, 
Blaquiere, General Ruffane, Lefevre, Boileau (Bart.), Colonel 
Yignolles, Romilly, Turquand, Pechel (Bart.), Travers, Lieut. 
General de Yilletes, Major General Montresor, Devisme, 

* The French hospital has recently been removed from its original site to 
Victoria Park, where a handsome building has been erected as a hospital for 
the accommodation of 40 men and 20 women, after the designs of Mr. Robert 
LeAvis Roumieu, architect, one of the directors ; Mr. Roumieu being himself 
descended from an illustrious Huguenot family — the Roumieus of Languedoc. 



282 HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 

Chamier (M. P.), Major General Layard, Bouverie, Captain 
Dumaresq (B. IST.), Duval, the Hon. Philip Pusey, Andre 
(Bart.)5DeHochepiedLarpent (Bart.), Jean Sylvestre (Bart.), 
Cazenove, Dollond, Petit (M.D.), Le Mesurier, Landon, Mar- 
tineau, Baron Maseres, Chevalier, Durand, Hanbury, Labou- 
chere, De la Rue (F. R. S.) ; and many other names well 
known and highly distinguished in the commerce, politics, 
literature, and science of England. 



CHAPTER XVL 

HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

It had long been the policy of the- English monarchs to in- 
duce foreign artisans to settle in Ireland and establish new 
branches of skilled industry there. It was hoped that the 
Irish people might be induced to follow theii* example, and 
that thus the unemployed population of that country, instead 
of being a source of national poverty and weakness, might be 
rendered a source of national wealth and strength. 

We have already seen the Earl of Strafford engaged in an 
attempt to establish the linen trade in the north of Ireland. 
But his term of office was cut short, and the country shortly 
after fell a prey to civil war and all its horrors. At the Res- 
toration, Charles IL endeavored to pursue the same policy ; 
and many of the French refugees, so soon as they landed in 
England, were forwarded into Ireland at the expense of the 
state. In 1674, the Irish Parliament passed an act offering 
letters of naturalization to the refugees, and free admission to 
all corporations. The then viceroy, the Duke of Ormond, 
zealously encouraged this policy ; and under his patronage, 
colonies of French refugees were planted at Dublin, Water- 
ford, Cork, Kilkenny, Lisburn, and Portarlington, where they 
introduced glove-making, silk-weaving, lace-making, and man- 
ufactures of cloth and linen. The refugees were prosperously 
pursuing their respective trades when the English Revolution 
of 1688 occun-ed, and again Ireland was thrown into a state 
of civil war, which continued for three years, but was at length 
concluded by the peace of Limerick in 1691. 

No sooner was the war at an end than William HI. took 
steps to restore the prostrate industry of the coimtry. The 
Irish Parliament again revived their bill of 1674 (which the 



284 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

Parliament of James liad suspended), granting naturalization 
to such of the refugees as should settle in Ireland, and guar- 
' anteeing them the free exercise of their religion. A large 
number of William's foreign officers at once availed them- 
selves of the privilege, and settled at Toughal, Waterford, 
and Portarlington ; while colonies of foreign manufacturers 
at the same time planted themselves at Dublin, Cork, Lis- 
burn, and other places. 

The refugees who settled at Dublin established themselves 
for the most part in " The Liberties," where they began the 
manufacture of tabinet, since more generally known as 
" L-ish poplin."* The demand for the article became such 
that a number of French masters and workmen left Spital- 
fields and migrated to Dublm, where they largely extended 
the manufacture. The Combe, Pimlico, Spitalfields, and oth- 
er streets in Dublin, named after corresponding streets in 
London, were built for their accommodation ; and Weavers' 
Square became a principal quarter in the city. For a time 
the trade was very prosperous, and gave employment to a 
large number of persons ; but about the beginning of the 
present century, the frequent recurrence of strikes among the 
workmen paralyzed the employers of labor; the manufacture 
in consequence became almost lost, and " The Liberties," in- 
stead of the richest, became one of the poorest quarters of 
Dublin. So long as the French colony prospered, the refu- 
gees had three congregations in the city. One of these was 
an Episcopal congregation, attached to St. Patrick's Cathe- 
dral, which worshiped in St. Mary's Chapel, granted to them 
by the dean and chapter ; and it continued in existence until 
the year 1816. The other two were Calvinistic congrega- 
tions, one of which had their place of worship in Peter Street, 

* There are no certain records for fixing the precise date when silk-weav- 
ing was commenced in Dublin ; but it is generally believed that an ancestor 
of the present respected family of the Latouches commenced the weaving of 
tabinets or poplins and tabbai-eas, in the liberties of Dublin, about the year 
1693.— Dr. W. Cooke Taylor, in Statistical Journal for December, 1843, 
p. 35-t. 



THE LINEN MANUFA CTURE. 285 

and the other in Lucas Lane. The refugees also had special 
burying-places assigned them — the principal one adjoining 
St. Stephen's Green, and the other being situated on the south- 
ern outskirts of the city. 

But the northern counties of Down and Antrim were, more 
than any other parts of Ireland, regarded as the sanctuary of 
the refagees. There they found themselves among men of 
their own religion — mostly Scotch Calvinists, who had fled 
from the Stuart persecutions in Scotland to take refuge in the 
comparatively unmolested districts of Ulster. Lisburn, for- 
merly called Lisnagarvey, about ten miles southwest of Bel- 
fast, was one of the favorite settlements of the refugees. The 
place had been burnt to the ground in the civil war of 1641 ; 
but, with the help of the refugees, it was before long restored 
to more than its former importance, and shortly became one 
of the most prosperous towns in Ireland. 

The government of the day, while they discouraged the 
woolen manufactui'e of Ireland because of its supposed injury 
to England, made every effort to encourage the trade in linen. 
An act was passed with the latter object in 1697, containing 
various enactments calculated to foster the grovrth of flax and 
the manufacture of linen cloth. Before the passing of this 
act, William HE. proceecTed to invite Louis Crommelin, a Hu- 
guenot refugee, then temporarily settled in Holland, to come 
over into Ireland and undertake the superintendence of the 
new branch of industry. 

Crommelin belonged to a family who had carried on the 
linen manufacture in its various branches in France for up- 
ward of 400 years, and he had himself been engaged in the 
business for more than 30 years at Armandcourt, near Saint 
Quentin, in Picardy, where he was born. He was singularly 
well fitted for the office to which the king called him, being a 
person of admirable business qualities, of excellent good sense, 
and of remarkable energy and perseverance. Being a Prot- 
estant, and a man of much foresight, he had quietly realized 
what he could of his large property in the neighborhood of 



286 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND, 



St. Quentin shortly before the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes, and migrated across the frontier into Holland he- 
fore the bursting of the storm. 

In 1698, Crommelin, having accepted the invitation of Wil- 
liam, left Holland, accompanied by his son, and shortly after 
his arrival in England he proceeded into the north of Ireland 
to fix upon the site best adapted for the intended undertak- 
ing. After due deliberation, he pitched upon the ruined vil- 
lage of Lisnagarvey as the most suitable for his purpose.* 
The king approved of the selection, and authorized Crom- 
melin to proceed with his operations, appointing him " Over- 
seer of the Royal Linen Manufactory of Ireland." In consid- 
eration of Crommelin advancing £10,000 out of his own pri- 
vate fortune to commence the undertaking, a grant of £800 
per annum was guaranteed to him for twelve years, being at 
the rate of 8 per cent, on the capital invested. At the same 
time, an annuity of £200 was granted him for life, and £120 
a year for two assistants, whose" duty it was to travel from 
place to place and superintend the cultivation of the flax, as 
well as to visit the bleaching-groxmds and see to the proper 
finishing of the fabric. f 

* Crommelin's first factory was at the foot of the wooden bridge over the 
Lagan, and his first bleaching-ground was started at the place caUed Hilden. 

t The following is the substance of the patent granted by Eling "William to 
Louis Crommelin : 

" In consequence of a proposal by Louis Crommelin to establish a linen 
manufacture in Ireland, and the design and method in said memorial being 
approved of by the Commissioners of Treasmy and Trade, the following grant 
was made : That £800 be settled for ten years as interest on £10,000 ad- 
vanced by said Louis Crommelin for the making of a bleaching-yard and 
building a pressing-house, and for weaving, cultivating, and pressing hemp 
and flax, and making provision of both to be sold ready prepared to the spin- 
ners at reasonable rate and upon credit; providing all tools and utensils, 
looms, and spinning-wheels, to be furnished at the several costs of persons 
employed, by advances to be paid by them in small payments as they are able ; 
advancing sums of money necessary for the subsistence of such workmen and 
their femilies as shall come from abroad, and of such persons of this our king- 
dom as shall apply themselves in families to work in the manufactories ; such 
sums to be advanced without interest, and to be repaid by degrees. That 
£200 per annum be allowed to said Crommelin during pleasure for his pains 
and care in carrying on said work, and that £120 per annima be allowed for 
two assistants, together with a premiimi of £60 per annum for the subsist- 
ence of a Prench minister, and that letters patent be granted accordingly. 
Dated 14:th of February, 1699." 



LOUIS CROMMELIN. 287 

Crommelin at once sent invitations abroad to the Protest- 
ant artisans to come over and join him, and numbers of them 
responded to his call A little colony of refugees of all ranks 
and many trades soon became planted at Lisbum, and the 
place shortly began to exhibit an appearance of returning 
prosperity. With a steadiness of purpose which distinguish- 
ed Crommelin through life, he devoted himself with unceas- 
ing zeal to the promotion of the enterprise which he had 
taken ia hand. He liberally rewarded the toil of his brother- 
exiles, and cheered them on the road to success. He import- 
ed from Holland a thousand looms and spinning-wheels of the 
best construction, and gave a premium of £5 for every loom 
that was kept going. Before long, he introduced improve- 
ments of his own in the looms and spinning-wheels, as well as 
in the implements and in the preparation of the material. 
Every branch of the operations made rapid progress under 
the Huguenot chief, from the sowing, cultivating, and pre- 
paring of the flax through the various stages of its manipula- 
tion, to the finish of the cloth at the bleach-fields. And thus, 
by painstaking, skill, and industry, zealously supported as he 
was by his artisans, Crommelin was shortly enabled to pro- 
duce finer sorts of fabrics than had ever before been made in 
Britain.* 

* A linen boai-d was established by the Duke of Onnond in October, 1711. 
In a petition to this board, L. Crommelin recounted all he had done, and re- 
quested a renewal of the patent. The board reported favorably. Cromme- 
lin had now been fourteen years at work. The colony of refugees, about 70 
at first, had increased to 120 in 1711. In 1703, November 20, Pai-liament 
voted confidence in Crommelin, and again, in October, 1707, by vote declared 
that he had been eminently useful. In his petition, Crommelin states that 
"by the first patent, granted by the late King William, the whole sum of 
^800 was granted to your petitioner for the settlement of himself and colony 
for ten years, over and above £380 per annum for pension for your petitioner 
and his three assistants, and the minister, during pleasure, which said patent 
was not put in execution, but instead thereof, after the said King William's 
death, the Honorable Trustees obtained a second from our most gracious 
Queen Anne, authorizing them to dispose of the said sums of £800 and £380, 
both to your petitioner and his colony, and the natives of the country, both 
which sums were limited for ten years, whereas by the first the pensions were 
granted during pleasure ; so that your petitioner was reduced to £400, which 
was a great discouragement, and produced not 3 per cent, instead of the 8 per 
cent, they were to have by the first patent The present patent will 



288 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

Crommelin, among Ms other labors for the establishment 
of the linen trade, wrote and published at Dublin, in 1705, Aoi 
Essay toward the improving of the Sempen and Flaxen Man- 
ufacture of the Kingdom of Ireland^ so that all might be made 
acquainted with the secret of his success, and be enabled to 
go and do likewise. The treatise contained many useful in- 
structions for the cultivation of flax, in the various stages of 
its planting and growth to perfection, together with direc- 
tions for the preparation of the material, in the several pro- 
cesses of spinning, weaving, and bleaching. 

Though a foreigner, Crommelin continued throughout his 
life to take a warm mterest in the prosperity of his adopt- 
ed country ; and his services were recognized, not only by 
King William, who contmued his firm friend to the last, but 
by the Irish Parliament, who from time to time voted grants 
of money to himself, and his assistants, and his artisans,* to 
enable him to ]5rosecute his enterprise; and in 1707 they 
voted him the public thanks for his patriotic efforts toward 
the establishment of the linen trade in Ireland, of which he 

determine on the 24th of June next, and unless the same be renewed for a 
certain terai of years, your petitioner and his colony ^vill be reduced to great 
extremities, and rendered incapable of continuing a settlement begun with 
so much difficulty." The prayer of the petition was for a renewal of the pat- 
ent for ten years or other tei-m, and for CrommeUn a pension of £500 per an- 
num, which was granted. — Ulster Journal of Archceology, i., 286-9. 

* In the papers of the Irish House of Commons the following account oc- 
curs : 
Pensions paid to the French colony at Lisbum : 

1704r-5, Feb. 16. Paid to Lewis Crommelin, for three yeai-s £600 

To French minister for two years 102 

To flax-dresser for frvvo and a quarter years 27 

To the reed-maker for the like tenn IS 

1705-6, Jan. 18. To Louis Crommelin for one year 280 

Kov. 26. To same for nine months 210 

1707, Aug. 22. To same for like tei-m 210 

To the arrears of two assistants 360 

IsTov. 20. To Louis Crommelm, minister, etc., for thi-ee months 80 
1708,Jimel9. To do. do. do. for sL\ months... 160 

Dec. 11. To same 26 

The "reed-maker" referred to in this account was one Mark HeniyDupre', 
a skilled workman who fled from France shortly after the Revocation, and 
landed in the south of Ireland. From thence he made his way to Lisbum, 
and joined Cronmielin, to whom he proved of great semce. His descendants 
are stiU to be found in Belfast. 



THE COLONY AT LISBURN.—GOYER. 289 

was unquestionably the founder. Crommelin died in 172*7, 
and was buried beside other members of his family who had 
gone before him, in the church-yard at Lisbum. 

The French refugees long continued a distinct people in 
that neighborhood. They clung together, associated togeth- 
er, and worshiped together, frequenting their own French 
church, in which they had a long succession of French pas- 
tors.* They carefully trained up their childi-en in their na- 
tive tongue and in the Huguenot faith, cherishing the hope 
of some day being enabled to return to their native land. 
But that hope at length died out, and the descendants of the 
Crommelins eventually mingled with the families of the Irish, 
and became part and parcel of the British nation. 

Among the other French settlers at Lisbum was Peter Goy- 
er, a native of Picardy. He owned a large farm there, and 
also carried on an extensive business as a manufactui'er of 
cambric and silk at the time of the Revocation ; but when 
the dragonnades began, he left all his property behind hini 
and fled across the frontier. The record is still preserved in 
the family of the cruelties practiced upon Peter's martyred 
brother by the ruthless soldiery, who tore a leaf from his Bi- 
ble and forced it into his mouth before he died. From Hol- 
land Goyer proceeded to England, and from thence to Lis- 
bum, where he began the manufacture of the articles for which 
he had acquired so much reputation in his own country. Aft- 
er a short time he resolved on returning to France, in the 
hope of being able to recover some of his property. But the 
persecution was raging more fiercely than ever, and. he found 
that, if captured, he would probably be condemned to the 

* The Eev. Saumaxez Duboui'dieu, grandson of the celebrated French pas- 
tor of the Savoj Church in London, was minister of the French church at 
Lisbum for forty-five years, and was so beloved in the neighborhood that at 
the insurrection of 1798 he was the only person in Lisbum whom the insur- 
gents agreed to spare. The French congregation haAing become greatly de- 
creased by deaths as well as intermaniages -wdth Irish families, the chapel was 
at length closed — it is now used as the court-house of Lisbum — and the pas- 
tor Dubourdieu having joined the Established Chiirch, he was presented with 
the living of Lambeg. His son, rector of Annahelt, County Down, was the 
author of ^ Statistical Survey of the County Antrim, published in 1812. 

T 



290 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND, 

galleys for life. He again contrived to make his escape, hav- 
ing been carried on board an outward-bound ship concealed 
in a wine-cask. Returned to Lisburn, lie resumed the manu- 
facture of silk and cambric, in which he employed a consider- 
able number of workmen. The silk manufacture there was 
destroyed in the rebellion of 1798, which dispersed the work- 
people; but that of cambric survived, and became firmly 
founded at Lurgan, which now enjoys a high reputation for 
the perfection of its manufactures. 

Other colonies of the refugees were established in the south 
of Ireland, where they carried on various branches of manu- 
facture. William Crommelin, a brother of Louis, having been 
appointed one of his assistants, superintended the branch of 
the linen trade which was established at Kilkenny through 
the instrumentality of the Marquis of Ormonde. Another 
settlement of refugees was formed at Cork, where they con- 
gregated together in a quarter of the town forming part of 
the parish of St. Paul, the principal street in which is still 
called French Church Street. Though the priucipal reftigees 
at Cork were merchants and traders, there was a sufficient 
number of them to begin the manufacture of woolen cloth, 
ginghams, and other fabrics, which they carried on for a time 
with considerable success. 

The woolen manufacture at Cork was begun by James Fon- 
taine, a member of the noble family of De la Fontaine, in 
France, a branch of which embraced Protestantism in the six- 
teenth century, and continued to adhere to it down to the 
period of the Revocation. The career of James Fontaine was 
singularly illustrative of the times in which he lived. His 
case was only one among thousands of others, in which per- 
sons of rank, wealth, and learning were suddenly stripped of 
their all, and compelled to become wanderers over the wide 
earth for conscience' sake. His life farther serves to show 
how a clever and agile Frenchman, thrown upon a foreign 
shore, a. stranger to its people and its language, without any 
calling or resources, but full of energy and courage, could 



JAMES FONTAINE. 291 

contrive to earn an honest living and achieve an honorahle 
reputation. ' 

James Fontaine was the son of a Protestant pastor of the 
same name, and was born at Royan in Saintonge, a famous 
Huguenot district. His father was the first of the family to 
drop the aristocratic prefix of " de la," which he did from mo- 
tives of humility. "When a child, Fontaine met with an acci- 
dent through the carelessness of a nurse which rendered him 
lame for life. When only eight years old, his father died, and 
little was done for his education until he arrived at about the 
age of seventeen, when he was placed under a competent tu- 
tor, and eventually took the degree of M. A. with distinction 
at the College of Guienne when in his twenty-second year. 
Shortly after his mother died, and he became the possessor 
of her landed property near Pons, on the Charente. 

Young Fontaine's sister, Marie, had married a Protestant 
pastor named Forestier, of St. Mesme in Angoumois. Jacques 
went to live with them for a time, and study theology under 
the pastor. The persecutions having shortly set in, Fores- 
tier's church was closed, and he himself compelled to fly to 
England. The congregation of St. Mesme was consequently 
left without a minister. Toung Fontaine, well knowing the 
risk he ran, nevertheless encouraged the Protestants to as- 
semble in the open air, and himself occasionally conducted 
their devotions. For this he was cited to appear before the 
local ti'ibunals. He was charged with the crime of attending 
one of such meetings in 1684, contrary to law, and though he 
had not been present at the meeting specified, he was con- 
demned and imprisoned. He appealed to the Parliament at 
Paris, whither he carried his plea of aZihi, and was acquitted. 

Early in 1685, the year of |he Revocation, the di*agoons 
were sent into the Huguenot district of Royan to caiTy out 
the mission of the "Most Christian King." In anticipation 
of their visit, shiploads of Huguenots had sailed for Holland 
and England a few days before, but Fontaine did not accom- 
pany them. He fled from his home, however, and remained 



292 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

concealed among his friends and relatives until h.e felt tliat 
he could no longer remain in France with safety. In the 
month of October, when the intelligence reached him that the 
Edict of Revocation was proclaimed, he at once determined 
to make his escape. A party of Protestant ladies had ar- 
ranged to accompany him, consisting of Janette Forestier, the 
daughter of the pastor of St. Mesme (now a fugitive in En- 
gland), his niece, and the two Mesdemoiselles Boursignot, to 
one of whom he was betrothed. 

At Marennes, Fontaine found the captain of an English 
ship who was willing to give the party a passage to England. 
It was at first intended that they should rendezvous on the 
sands near Tremblade, and then proceed privily on shipboard. 
But the coast was very strictly guarded, especially between 
Royan and La Rochelle, where the Protestants of the interior 
were constantly seeking outlets for escape ; and this part of 
the plan was given up. The search of vessels leaving the 
ports had become so strict, that the English captain feared 
that even if Fontaine and his ladies succeeded on getting on 
board, it would not be possible for him to conceal them or 
prevent their falling into the hands of the king's detectives. 
He therefore proposed that his ship should set sail, and that 
the fugitives should put to sea and wait for him to take them 
on board. It proved fortunate that this plan was adopted, 
for scarcely had the English merchantman left Tremblade 
than she was boarded and searched by a French frigate on the 
look-out for fugitive Protestants. ISTo prisoners were found, 
and the captain of the merchantman was ordered to proceed 
at once on the straight course for England. 

Meanwhile, the boat containing the fugitives having put 
to sea, as arranged, lay to waiting the approach of the En- 
glish vesseL That they migK't not be descried from the frig- 
ate, which was close at hand, the boatman made them lie 
down in the bottom of his boat, covering them with an old 
sail. They all knew the penalties to which they were liable 
if detected in the attempt to escape — Fontaine, the boatman, 



JAMES FONTAINE. 293 

and his son, to condemnation to the galleys for life, and the 
three ladies to imprisonment for life. The frigate bore down 
upon the boat and hailed the boatman, who feigned drunken- 
ness so well as completely to deceive the king's captain, who, 
seeing nothing but the old sail in the bottom of the boat, or- 
dered the ship's head to be put about, when the frigate sail- 
ed away in the direction of Rochefort. Shortly after, whilo 
she was still in sight, though distant, the agreed signal was 
given by the boat to the merchantman (that of dropping the 
sail three times in the apparent attempt to hoist it), on which 
the English vessel lay to, and took the exiles on board. Aft- 
er a voyage of eleven days they reached the welcome asylum 
of England, and Fontaine and his party landed at Barnstaple, 
North Devon, his sole property consisting of twenty pistoles 
and six silver spoons, which had belonged to his father, and 
bore upon them his infantine initials, I. D. L. F. — Jacques dQ 
la Fontaine. 

Fontaine and the three ladies were hospitably received by 
Ml*. Donne of Barnstaple, with whom they lived until a home 
could be prepared for their reception. One of the first things 
which occupied Fontaine's attention was how to earn a liv- 
ing for their support. A cabin biscuit, which he bought for 
a halfpenny, gave him his first hint. The biscuit would have 
cost twopence in France; and it at once occurred to him 
that, such being the case, grain might be shipped from En- 
gland to France at a profit. Mr. Donne agreed to advance 
the money requisite for the purpose, taking half the profits. 
The first cargo of com exported proved very profitable ; but 
Fontaine's partner afterward insisting on changing the con- 
signee, who proved dishonest, the speculation eventually 
proved unsuccessftiL 

Fontaine had by this time married the Huguenot lady to 
whom he was betrothed, and who had accompanied him in 
his flight to England. After the failure of the com specula- 
tion he removed to Taunton in Somerset, where with diffi- 
culty he made shift to live. He took pupils, dealt in provi- 



294 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

sions, sold brandy, groceries, stockings, leather, tin and cop- 
per wares, and carried on wool-combing, dyeing, and the mak- 
ing of calimancoes. In short, he was a "jack-of-all-trades;" 
and his following so many callings occasioned so much jeal- 
ousy in the place, that he was cited before the mayor and al- 
dermen as an interloper, and required to give an account of 
himself.* This and other circumstances determined him to 
give up business in Taunton — not, however, before he had con- 
trived to save about £1000 by his industry — and to enter on 
the life of a pastor. He had already been admitted to holy 
orders by the French Protestant synod at Taunton, and m 
1694 he left that town for Ireland in search of a congrega- 
tion. 

Fontaine's adventures in Ireland were still more remarka- 
ble than those he had experienced in England. The French 
refugees established at Cork had formed themselves into a 
congregation, of which he was appointed pastor in January, 

* When Fontaine was brought before the mayor (who was a wool-comber), 
he was asked if he had served an apprenticeship to all the trades he earned 
on. Fontaine replied, "Gentlemen, in France a man is esteemed according 
to his qualifications, and men of letters and study are especially honored by 
every body if they conduct themselves with propriety, even though they 

should not be worth one penny All the apprenticeship I have ever 

served, from the age of foui- years, has been to turn over the pages of a book. 
I took the degree of Master of Arts at the age of twenty-two, and then de- 
voted myself to the study of the Holy Scriptures. Hitherto I had been 
thought worthy of the best company wherever I had been ; but when I came 
to this town, I found that science without riches was regarded as a cloud with- 
out water, or a tree without fruit — in a word, a thing worthy of supreme con- 
tempt ; so much so, that if a poor ignorant wool-comber or a hawker amass- 
ed money he was honored by all, and looked up to as first in the place. I 
have therefore, gentlemen, renounced all speculative science ; I have become 
a wool-comber, a dealer in pins and laces, hoping that I may one day attain 
wealth, and be also one of the first men in the town." 

The recorder laid down the law in favor of Fontaine: "If the poor refu- 
gees," said he, "who have abandoned country, friends, property, and every 
thing sweet and agi-eeable in this life for their religion and the glory of the 
Gospel — if they had not the means of gaining a livehhood, the parish would 
be burdened with their maintenance, for you could not send them to their 
birthplace. The parish is obliged to Mi-. Fontaine for every morsel of bread 
he earns for his family. In the desire he has to live independently, he hum- 
bles himself so far as to become a tradesman, a thing veiy rarely seen among 
learned men, such as I know him to be from my own conversation with him. 
There is no law that can disturb him." 

Fontaine retired from the court amid showers of benedictions. 



JAl^IES FONTAINE. 295 

1695. They were, however, as yet too poor to pay him any 
stipend ; and, in order to support himself as well as to turn 
to account the £1000 which he had saved by his industry and 
frugality at Taunton, he began a manufactory of broadcloth. 
This gave much welcome employment to the laboriag poor 
of the city, besides contributing toward the increase of its 
general trade, ia acknowledgment of which the corporation 
presented him with the freedom. He still continued to offi- 
ciate as pastor; but one day, when expounding the text of 
" Thou shalt not steal," he preached so ejffectively as to make 
a personal enemy of a member of his congregation, who, un- 
known to him, had been engaged in a swindliag transaction. 
The result was so much dissension in the congregation that 
he eventually gave up the charge. 

To occupy his spare time — for Fontaine was a man of an 
intensely active temperament, unhappy when unemployed — 
he took a farm at Bearhaven, situated at the entrance to 
Bantry Bay, nearly at the extreme southwest point of Mun- 
ster, the very Land's End of L-eland, for the purpose of found- 
ing a fishery. The idea occurred to him, as it has since to 
others, that there were many hungry people on land waiting 
to be fed, and shoals of fish at sea waiting to be caught, and 
that it would be a useful enterprise to form a fishing com- 
pany, and induce the idle people to put to sea and catch the 
fish, selling to others the surplus beyond what was necessary 
to feed them. Fontaine succeeded in inducing some of the 
French merchants settled in London to join hun in the ven- 
ture, and he himself went to reside at Bearhaven to superin- 
tend the operations of the company. 

Fontaine failed, as other Irish fishing companies have since 
failed. The people would rather starve than go to sea, for 
Celts are by nature averse to salt water; and the conse- 
quence was that the company made no progress. Fontaine 
had even to defend himself against the pillaging and plun- 
dering of the natives. He then brought some thirteen French 
refugee families to settle in the neighborhood, having previ- 



296 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

ously taken small farms for them, including Dursey Island ; 
but the Irish gave them no peace nor rest, and they left him 
before the end of three years. The local court would give 
Fontaine no redress when any injury was done to him. If 
his property was stolen, and he appealed to the court, his 
complaint was referred to a jury of papists, who invariably 
decided against him; whereas, if the natives made any claim 
upon him, they were sure to recover. 

Notwithstanding these great discouragements, Fontaine 
held to his purpose, and determined, if possible, to establish 
his fishing station. He believed that time would work in his 
favor, and that it might yet be possible to educate the peo- 
ple into habits of industry. He was well supported by the 
government, who, observing his zealous efforts to establish a 
new branch of industry, and desirous of giving him increased 
influence in his neighborhood, appointed him justice of the 
peace. In this capacity he was found very useful in keeping 
down the " Tories,"* and breaking up the connections be- 
tween them and the French privateers who then frequented 
the coast. Eaiowing his liability to attack, Fontaine con- 
verted his residence into a sod fort, and not without cause, 
as the result proved. In June, 1704, a French privateer en- 
tered Bantry Bay and proceeded to storm the sod fort. The 
lame Fontaine, by the courage and ability of his defense, 
showed himself a commander of no mean skill. John Macli- 
ney, a Scotchman, and Paul Roussier, a French refugee, show- 
ed great bravery on the occasion ; while Madame Fontaine, 
who acted as aid-de-camp and surgeon, distinguished herself 
by her quiet courage. The engagement lasted from eight in 
the morning until four in the afternoon, when the French de- 
camped with the loss of three killed and seven wounded, 
spreading abroad a very wholesome fear of Fontain6 and his 
sod fort. 



* The Tories were Irish robbers or banditti who lived by plunder ; the 
word being derived firom the Irish word Tokuighuin, "to pui'sue for pur- 
poses of violence." 



JAMES FONTAINE, 29: 



When the refugee's gallant exploit was reported to the 
government, he was rewarded by a pension of five shillings a 
day for beating off the privateer, and supplied with five guns, 
which he was authorized to mount on his battery. 

Fontaine was now allowed to hold his post unmolested. 
It was at the remotest corner of the island, far from any 
town, and surrounded by a hostile population, in league with 
the enemy, whose ships were constantly hovering about the 
coast. In the year following the above engagement, while 
Fontaine himself was absent in London, a French ship enter- 
ed Bantry Bay and cautiously approached Bearhaven. Fon- 
taine's wife was, however, on the look-out, and detected the 
foreigner. She had the guns loaded and one of them fired 
off to show that the little garrison was on the alert. The 
Frenchman then veered off and made for Bear Island, where 
a party of the crew landed, stole some cattle, which they put 
on board, and sailed away again. 

A more serious assault was made on the fort about two 
years later. A company of soldiers was then quartered at 
the Half Barony in the neighborhood, the captain of which 
boarded with the refugee family. On the 'Tth of October, 
1708, during the temporary absence of Fontaine as well as 
the captain, a French privateer made his appearance in the 
haven, and hoisted English colors. The ensign residing in 
the fort at the time, deceived by the stratagem, went on 
board, when he was immediately made a prisoner. He was 
plied with drink and became intoxicated, when he revealed 
the fact that there was no officer in command of the fort. 
The crew of the privateer were principally Irish, and they de- 
termined to attack the place at midnight, for which purpose 
a party of them landed. Fontaine had, however, by this 
time returned, and was on the alert. He hailed the advanc- 
ing party through a speaking-trumpet, and no answer being 
returned, he ordered fire to be opened on them. The assail- 
ants then divided mto six detachments, one of which set fire 
to the offices and stables ; the household servants, under the 



298 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

direction of Madame Fontaine, protecting the dwelling-house 
from conflagration. The men within fired from the windows 
and loopholes, but the smoke was so thick that they could 
only fire at random. Some of the privateer's men succeeded 
in making a breach with a crowbar in the wall of the house, 
but they were saluted with so rapid a fire through the open- 
ing that they suspected there must be a party of soldiers in 
the house, and they retired. They advanced again, and sum- 
moned the besieged to surrender, offering fair terms. Fon- 
taine approached the French for the purpose of parley, when 
one of the Irish lieutenants took aim and fired at him. This 
treachery made the Fontaines resume the defensive, which 
they continued without intermission for some hours; when, 
no help arriving, Fontaine found himself under the necessity 
of surrendering, conditional upon himself and his two sons, 
with their two followers, marching out with the honors of war. 
No sooner, however, had the house been surrendered, than 
Fontaine, his sons, and their followers were at once made 
prisoners, and the dwelling was given up to plunder. 

Fontaine protested against this violation of the treaty, but 
it was of no use. The leader of the French party said to him, 
"Your name has become so notorious among the privateers 
of St. Malo that I dare not return to the vessel without you. 
The captain's order was peremptory to bring you on board, 
dead or alive." Fontaine and his sons were accordingly taken 
on board as prisoners ; and when he appeared on the deck, 
the crew set up a shout of " Yive le Roi." On this, Fontaine 
called out to them, " Gentlemen, how long is it since victories 
have become so rare in France that you need to make a tri- 
umph of such an affair as this ? A glorious feat indeed ! 
Eighty men, accustomed to war, have succeeded in compell- 
ing one poor pastor, four cowherds, and five children, to sur- 
render upon tei-ms !" Fontaine again expostulated with the 
captain, and informed him that, being held a prisoner in breach 
of the treaty under which he had surrendered, he must be pre- 
pared for the retaliation of the English government upon 



JAMES FONTAINE. 299 



French prisoners of war. The captain would not, however, 
give up Fontaine without a ransom, and demanded £100. 
Madame Fontaine contrived to borrow £30, and sent it to the 
captain, with a promise of the remainder ; but the captain 
could not wait, and he liberated Fontaine, but carried off his 
son Pierre to St. Malo as a hostage for the payment of the 
balance. 

When the news of this attack of the fort at Bearhaven 
reached the English government, and they were infoi-med of 
the violation of the conditions under which Fontaine had sm-- 
rendered, they ordered the French officers at Kinsale and 
Plymouth to be put in irons until Fontaine's son was sent back. 
This produced an immediate effect. In the coui-se of a few 
months Pierre Fontaine was set at liberty and returned to his 
parents, and the balance of the ransom was never claimed. 
The commander of the forces in L'eland made Fontaine an 
immediate grant of £100, to relieve him in the destitute state 
to which he had been reduced by the plunder of his dwelling ; 
the county of Cork aftei-ward paid him £800 as damages on 
its being proved that Lishmen had been principally concerned 
in the attack and robbery ; and Fontaine's two sons were 
awarded the position and rights of half-pay officers, while his 
own pension was continued. The fort at Bearhaven, having 
been completely desolated, was abandoned ; and Fontaine, 
with the grant made him by government, and the sum award- 
ed him by the county, left the lawless neighborhood which he 
had so long labored to improve and to defend, and proceeded 
to Dublin, where he settled for the remainder of his life as a 
teacher of languages, mathematics, and fortification. The 
school proved highly successful, and he ended his days in 
peace. His noble wife died in 1721, and he himself followed 
her shortly after, respected and beloved by all who knew 
him.* 

* Nearly all Fontaine's near relatives took refuge in England. His mother 
and three of his brothers were refugees in London. One of them afterward 
became a Protestant minister in Germany. One of his uncles, Peter, was 
pastor of the Pest House Chapel in London. Two aunts — one a widow, the 



300 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

We return to the sul)ject of the settlements made by other 
refugees in the southern parts of Ireland. In 1697, ahout fif- 
ty retired officers, who had served in the army of William HI., 
settled with their families at Toughal, on the invitation of 
the mayor and corporation, who offered them the freedom of 
the town on payment of the nominal sum of sixpence each. 
It does not appear that the reftigees were sufficiently numer- 
ous to maintain a pastor, though the Rev. Arthur d'Anvers 
for some time privately ministered to them. From the cir- 
cumstance principally of their comparatively small number, 
they speedily ceased to exist as a distinctive portion of the 
community, though names of French origin are still common 
in the town, and n;any occur in the local registers of births, 
marriages, and deaths, of about a hundred years ago. 

The French refugee colony at Waterford was of considera- 
bly greater importance. Being favorably situated for trade 
near the mouth of the River Suir, with a rich agricultural 
country behind it, that town offered many inducements to the 
refugee merchants and traders to settle there. In the act 
passed by the Iiish Parliament ia 1662, and re-enacted in 16*72, 
" for encouraging Protestant strangers and others to inhabit 
Ireland," Waterford is specially named as one of the cities se- 
lected for the settlement of the refugees. Some twenty years 
later, in 1693, the corporation of Waterford, being desirous 
not only that the disbanded Huguenot officers and soldiers 
should settle in the place, but also that those skilled in arts 
and manufactures should become citizens, ordered " that the 
city and liberties do provide habitations for fifty families of 



other married to a refugee merchant — ^were also settled in London. Fon- 
taine's sons and daughters mostly emigi-ated to Virginia, where their descend- 
ants are stiU to be found. His daughter Mary Anne manied the Rev, James 
Maury, FredericksAdlle Parish, Louisa County, Virginia, from whom Matthew 
Fontaine Maury, LL.D., lately Captain in the Confederate States Na^y, and 
author of The Physical Geography of the Sea, is lineally descended. The 
above facts are taken from the '■^Memoirs of a Huguenot Family, translated 
and compiled from the original Autobiography of the Rev. James Fontaine, 
and other family manuscripts, by Ann Maury" (another of the descendants 
of Fontaine) : New York, 1853. 



COLONY AT WATERFORD. 301 

the French Protestants to drive a trade of linen manufacture, 
they bringing with them a stock of money and materials for 
their subsistence until flax can be sown and produced on the 
lands adjacent ; and that the freedom of the city be given 
them gratis.^'' At the same time, the choir of the old Fran- 
ciscan monastery was assigned to them, with the assent of the 
bishop, for the purpose of a French church, the corporation 
guaranteeing a stipend of £40 a year toward the support of 
a pastor. 

These liberal measures had the effect of inducing a consid- 
erable number of refugees to establish themselves at Water- 
ford, and carry on various branches of trade and manufacture. 
Some of them became leading merchants in the place, and rose 
to wealth and distinction. Thus John Espaignet was sheriff 
of the city in lYOlT, and the two brothers Yashon served, the 
one as mayor in 1726, the other as sheriff in 17 3 5. The for- 
eign wine-trade of the south oflrelend was almost exclusively 
conducted through Waterford by the French wine-merchants, 
some of their .principal stores being in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of the French church. The refugees also made vig- 
orous efforts to establish the linen manufacture in Waterford, 
in which they were encouraged by the Irish Parliament ; and 
for many years linen was one of the staple trades of the place, 
though it has ceased since the introduction of power-looms. 

Another colony of the refugees was established at Portar- 
lington, which town they may almost be said to have found- 
ed. The first settlers consisted principally of retired French 
officers as well as privates, who had served in the army of 
King William. We have already referred to the circum- 
stances connected with the formation of this colony by the 
Marquis de Ruvigny, created Earl of Galway, to whom Wil- 
liam granted the estate of Portarlington, which had become 
forfeited to the crown by the treason and outlawry of Sir Pat- 
rick Grant, its former owner. Although the grant was re- 
voked by the English Parliament, and the earl ceased to own 
the Portarlington estate, he nevertheless continued to take the 



302 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

same warm interest as before in the prosperity of the refugee 
colony.* 

Among the early settlers at Portarlington were the Mar- 
quis de Paray,the Sieur de Hauteville, Louis le Blanc, Siem* 
de Perce, Charles de Ponthieu, Captain d'Alnuis and his 
brother, Abel Pelissier, David d'Arripe, Ruben de la Roche- 
foucauld, the Sieur de la Boissiere, Guy de la Blachi^re de 
Bonneval, Dumont de Bostaquet, Franquefort, Chateauneuf, 
La Beaume, Montpeton du Languedoc, Vicomte de Laval, 
Pierre Goulin, Jean la Ferriere, De Gaudry, Jean Lafaurie, 
Abel de Ligonier de YignolleSjf Anthoine de Ligonier, and 
numerous others. 

The greater number of these noblemen and gentlemen had 
served with distinction under the Duke of Schomberg, La 
Melonniere, La Caillemotte, Cambon, and other commanders, 
in the service of William ILL They had been for the most 
part men of considerable estate in their own country, and 
were now content to live as exiles on the half-pay granted 
them by the country of their adoption. When they first 
came into the neighborhood the town of Portarlington could 
scarcely be said to exist. The village of Cootletoodra, as it 
was formerly called, was only a collection of miserable huts 

* The Bulletin de h SocUUde VHistoire du Protestantisme Frangais (1 8fil, 
]>. G9) contains a letter addressed by the Earl of Galway to David Barbut, a 
refugee residing at Berne, in Jannaiy, 1693, wherein he informs liim that King 
William is gi'eatly concerned at the distress of the Fi'ench refugees in Switz- 
erland, and desires that 600 families should proceed to Ireland and settle 
there. He adds that the king has recommended the Protestant princes of 
Germany and the States-General of Holland to pay the expense of the trans- 
port of these families to the sea-board, after which the means would be pro- 
Added for then: embai-kation into Ireland. "The king," said he, "is so 
touched at the misery with which these families are threatened where they are, 
and perceives so clearly how valuable their settlement would be in his kingdom 
of Ireland, that he is resolved to provide all the money that may be required 
for the pm'pose. We must not lose any time in the matter, and I hope that 
by the month of April, or May at the latest, these families will be on their 
way to join us." 

t The Des Vignolles were of noble birth, descended from the celebrated 
Estienne des Vignolles of Languedoc, where the family possessed large estates. 
Two. brothers of the name were Huguenot officers who served under William 
m. Charles .Vignolles, C. E., is descended from the elder brother, and the 
Dean of Ossory from the younger. 



COLONY AT PORTARLINGTON. 303 

unfit for human residence ; and until the dwellmgs designed 
for the reception of the exiles hy the Earl of Galway could 
be built, they resided in the adjoining villages of Doolough, 
Monasterevin, Cloneygown, and the ancient village of Lea. 

The new Portarlington shortly became the model town of 
the district. The dwellings of the strangers were distinguish- 
ed for their neatness and comfort, and their farms and gar- 
dens were patterns of tidiness and high culture. They intro- 
duced new fruit-trees from abroad ; among others, the black 
Italian walnut and the jargonelle pear, specimens of which 
still flourish at Portarlington in vigorous old age. The orig- 
inal planter of these trees fought at the Boyne as an ensign 
in the resriment of La Melonniere. The immigrants also in- 
troduced the " espalier" with great success, and their fruit 
became widely celebrated. Another favorite branch of cult- 
ure was flowers, of which they imported many new sorts, 
while their vegetables were unmatched in Ireland. 

The exiles formed a highly select society, composed as it 
was of ladies and gentlemen of high cultui-e, of pure morals, 
and of gentle bii'th and manners, so different from the roy- 
stering Irish gentry of the time. Though they had suffered 
grievous wrongs at the hands of their country, they were 
contented, cheerful, and even gay. Traditions still exist of 
the military refugees, in their scarlet cloaks, sitting in groups 
under the old oaks in the market-place, sipping tea out of 
their small china cups. They had also their balls, and ordi- 
naries, and " ridottos" (places of pleasant resort), and a great 
deal of pleasant visiting went on among them. They con- 
tinued to enjoy their favorite wine of Bordeaux, which was 
imported for them in considerable quantities by their fellow- 
exiles, the French wine-merchants of Waterford and Dublin.* 

* Thus we find Monsieur Pennetes, a Dublin wine-merchant, sending to a 
Portarlington colonist in 1726 "3 gals. Frontignac at Qs. ; oxhead of clar- 
ate, prise agreed, £11 ; a dousen of wine, 11 5. ; oxhead of Benicarlo at 2s. 
iyd. per gal., allowing 64 gals., corns to £8 ; une demy-barrique de selle de 
Prance, 6s." In 1757, Joshua Pilot, a retired paymaster and surgeon in 
Battereau's regiment, imported largely direct from Messrs. Barton and Co. 
of Bordeaux. — Sir E. D. Burough in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 



304 . SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

There were also numerous refugees of humbler class set- 
tled in the place, who carried oh various trades. Thus the 
Fouberts carried on a manufacture of linen, and many of the 
minor tradesmen were French — bakers, butchers, masons, 
smiths, carpenters, tailors, and shoemakers. The Blancs, 
butchers, transmitted the business from father to son for 
more than 150 years; and they are still recognizable at 
Portarlington under the name of Blong. The Micheaus, 
farmers, had been tenants on the estates of the Robillard fam- 
ily in Champagne, and they were now tenants of the same 
family at Portarlington. One of the Micheaus was sexton of 
the French church of the town until within the last few years. 
La Borde the mason, Capel the blacksmith, and Gautier the 
carpenter, came from the neighborhood of Bordeaux ; and 
theu- handiwork, much of which still exists at Portarlington 
and the neighborhood, bears indications of their foreign 
training. 

The refiigees, as was then- invariable practice where they 
settled in sufficient numbers, early formed themselves into a 
congregation at Portarlington, and a church was erected for 
their accommodation, in which a long succession of able min- 
isters officiated, the last of whom was Charles de Yignolles,* 

* The register of the Pi'ench church at Portarlington is still preserved. 
It commenced in 1694, and records the names, families, and localities hi 
France from whence the refugees came. " The first volume of the register," 
says Sir E. D. Burough, " still wears the coarse and primitive brown paper 
ilover in which it was originally invested by its foreign guardians 161 years 
since. One side bears the following inscription in large capitals : Livr. . , 
. . . Des Bapt Mariag Et Enterrements, 1694." 

The followmg is the Hst of pastors of the French church : 
Depuis 1694—1696, Gillet. 
5 Octre. 1696 — Belaquiere. 

1 Deere. 1696-1698, Gillet. sralvinists 

15 May, 1698— 1698, Dui-assus. ;>^^aivimsis. 

Ducasse. 
26 Juin, 1698—1702, Daillon. 
3 Octre. 1702—1729, De BonnevSl. 
14 Augt. 1729—1739, Des Voeux. 

16 Eebre. 1739-40—1767, Caillard. . . ^„i,v 

2 Sep. 1767—1793, Des Voeux. ^.^nguc 
Jan. 1793— 1817, VignoIles/-»c7-e. [ 

1817— Charles Vignolles^z/*. J 



THE COLONY AT PORTARLINGTON. 305 

tifterward Dean of Ossory. The service was conducted in 
French down to the year 1817, since which it has been dis- 
continued, the language having by that time become an al- 
most unknown tongue in the neighborhood. 

Besides a church, the refugees also possessed a school, 
which enjoyed a high reputation for the classical education 
which it provided for the rising generation. At an early 
period the boys seem to have been clothed as well as edu- 
cated, the memorandum-book of an old officer of the Boyne 
containing an entry, April 20th, 1727, " making six sutes of 
cloths for ye blewbois, at 18 pee. per sute, 00 : 09 : 00." M. 
Le Fevre, founder of the Charter Schools, was the first school- 
master in Portarlington. He is said to have been the father 
of Sterne's " poor sick lieutenant.'^ The Bonnevaux and 
Tersons were also among the subsequent teachers, and many 
of the principal Protestant families of Ireland passed under 
their hands. Among the more distinguished men who re- 
ceived the best part of their education at Portarlington may 
be mentioned the Marquis of Wellesley and his brother the 
Earl of Mornington, the Marquis of Westmeath, the Honora- 
ble John "Wilson Croker, Sir Henry Ellis (of the British Mu- 
seum), Daniel W. Webber, and many others. 

Lady Morgan, referring in her Memoirs to the French col- 
ony at Portarlington, observes: "The dispersion of the 
French Huguenots, who settled in great numbers in Ireland, 
was one of the greatest boons .conferred by the misgovern- 
ment of other countries upon our own. Eminent preachers, 
eminent lawyers, and clever statesmen, whose names are not 
unknown to the literature and science of France, occupied 
high places in the professions in Dublin. Of these I may 



* The Poi-tarlington Eegister contains the following record : "Sepultui-e 
du Dimanche 23* Mars, 1717-18. Le Samedy 22« du present mois entre 
minuet et une heure, est mort en la foj du Seigneur et dans I'esperance de la 
glorieuse resurrection, Monsieur Favre, Lieutenant a la pention, dont I'ame 
estait aUee a Dieu, son corps a ete enterre par Monsieur Bonneval ministre 
de cette Eglise dans le cemitiere de ce lieu. A. Ligonier Bonneval, min. 
Louis Bidiod." 

u 



306 SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 

mention, as personal acquaintances, the Saurins, the Le Fa- 
nus, Espinasses, Favers, Corneilles,Xe Bas, and many others, 
whose families still remain in the Irish metropolis."* 

It is indeed to be regretted that the settlements of the refu- 
gee French and Flemmgs in Ireland were so much smaller 
than those which they effected in different parts of England, 
otherwise the condition of that unfortunate country would 
probably have been very different from what we now find it. 
The only part of Ireland in which the Huguenots left a per- 
manent impression was in the north, where the branches of 
industry which they planted took firm root, and continue to 
flourish with extraordinary vigor to this day. But in the 
south it was very different. Though the natural facilities 
for trade at Cork, Limerick, and Waterford were much great- 
er than those of the northern towns, the refugees never ob- 
tained any firm footing or made any satisfactory progress in 
that quarter, and their colonies there only maintained a sick- 
ly existence, and gradually fell into decay. One has only to 
look at Belfast and the busy hives of industry in that neigh- 
borhood, and note the condition of the northern province of 
Ulster — existing under precisely the same laws as govern the 
south — to observe how seriously the social progress of Ire- 
land has been effected by the want of that remunerative em- 
ployment which the refugees were so instrumental in provid- 
ing in all the districts in which they settled, wherever they 
found a population willing to be taught by them, and to fol- 
low in the path which they undeviatingly pursued, of peace- 
ful, contented, and honorable industry. 

* Lady Mokgan— iJfemoM's, i., 106. 



CHAPTER XYIL 

DESCE10>ANTS OF THE EEFUG-EES. 

AjLTHOtJGH 300 years have passed since the first religious 
persecutions in Flanders and France compelled so large a 
number of Protestants to fly from those countries and take 
refuge in England, and although 180 years have passed since 
the second great emigration from France took place in the 
reign of Louis XTV"., the descendants of the " gentle and prof- 
itable strangers" are still recognizable among us. In the 
course of the generations which have come and gone since the 
dates of their original settlement, they have labored diligent- 
ly and skillfully, greatly to the advantage of British trade, 
commerce, and manufactures, while there is scarcely a branch 
of literature, science, and art in which they have not distin- 
guished themselves. 

Three hundred years form a long period in the life of a na- 
tion. During that time many of the distinctive characteris- 
tics of the original refugees must necessarily have become ef- 
faced in the persons of their descendants. Indeed, by far the 
greater number of them before long became completely An- 
glicized, and ceased to be traceable except by their names, 
and even these have for the most part become converted into 
names of English sound. 

So long as the foreigners continued to cherish the hope of 
returning to their native country on the possible cessation of 
the persecutions there, they waited and worked on with that 
end in view ; but as the persecutions only waxed hotter, they 
at length gradually gave up all hope of return. They claimed 
and obtained letters of naturalization ; and though many of 
them continued for several generations to worship in their na- 
tive language, they were content to live and die English sub- 



308 DESCENDANTS OF TEE REFUGEES. 

jects. Their children grew up amid English associations, and 
they desired to forget that their fathers had been fugitives 
and foreigners in the land. They cared not to remember the 
language or to retain the names which marked them as dis- 
tinct from the people among whom they lived, and hence 
many of the descendants of the refugees, in the second or. 
third generation, abandoned their foreign names, while they 
gradually ceased to frequent the distinctive places of worship 
which their fathers had founded. 

Indeed, many of the first Flemings had no sooner settled 
in England and become naturalized than they threw off their 
foreign names and assumed English ones instead. Thus, as 
we have seen, Hoek, the Flemish brewer in Southwark, as- 
sumed the name of Leeke; while Haestricht, the Flemish 
manufacturer at Bow, took that of James. Mr. Pryme, for- 
merly professor of political economy in the University of 
Cambridge, and representative of that town in Parliament, 
whose ancestors were refugees from Ypres, in Flanders, has 
informed us that his grandfather dropped the " de la" origi- 
nally prefixed to the family name in consequence of the strong 
anti-Gallican feeling which prevailed in this country during 
the Seven Years' War of 1756-63, though his son has since as- 
sumed it ; and the same circumstance doubtless led many oth- 
ers to change their foreign names to those of English sound. 

IsTevertheless, a large number of purely Flemish names, 
though it may be with English modifications, are still to be 
found in various parts of England and teland where the 
foreigners originally settled. These have been, on the whole, 
better preserved in rural districts than in London, where the 
social friction was greater, and more speedily rubbed off the 
foreign peculiarities. In the lace towns of the west of En- 
gland, such names as Paymond, Spiller, Brock, Stocker, Groot, 
Rochett, and Kettel are still common, and the same trade has 
continued in their families for many generations. The Wal- 
loon Goupes, who settled in Wiltshire as cloth-makers more 
than 300 years since, are still known there as the Guppys. 



THE DES BOUVERYES—THE HUGESSENS. 309 

In tlie account of the early refugee Protestants given in 
the preceding pages, it has been pointed out that the first 
settlers in England came principally from Lille, Turcoing, 
and the towns situated along both sides of the present 
French frontier — the country of the French Walloons, but 
then subject to the crown of Spain. Among the first of 
these refugees was one Laurent des Bouveryes,* a native of 
Sainghin, near Lille, He first settled at Sandwich as a maker 
of serges in 1567, after which, in the following year, he re- 
moved to Canterbury to join the Walloon settlement there. 
The Des Bouveryes family prospered greatly. In the third 
generation, we find Edward, grandson of the refugee, a 
wealthy Turkey merchant of London. In the fourth gen- 
eration, the head of the family was created a baronet ; in 
the fifth, a viscount ; and in the sixth, an earl ; the original 
Laurent des Bouveryes being at this day represented in the 
House of Lords by the Earl of Radnor. 

About the same time that the Des Bouveryes came into 
England from Lille, the Hugessens arrived from Dunkirk 
and settled at Dover. They afterward removed to Sand- 
wich, where the family prospered ; and in course of a few 
generations we find them enrolled among the country aris- 
tocracy of Kent, and their name borne by the ancient family 
of the KnatchbuUs. It is not the least remarkable circum- 
stance connected with this family that a member of it now 
represents the borough of Sandwich, one of the earliest seats 
of the refugees in Englamd. 

Among other notable Flemish immigrants may be num- 
bered the Houblons, who gave the Bank of England its first 
governor, and from one of whose daughters the late Lord 
Palmerston was lineally descended. f The Yan Sittarts, Jan- 

* The Bouveries were men of mark in their native country. Thus, in the 
Histoire de Cavibray et du Cambrensis, published in 16G4, it is stated, "La 
famille de Bouverie est reconnu passer plusiers siecles entre les patrices de 
Cambray." 

t Anne, sister and heir of Sir Richai'd Hublon, was manied to Henry Tem- 
ple, created Lord Palmei*ston in 1722. 



310 DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

• sens, Courteens, Van Milderts, Yanlores, Corsellis, and Van- 
necks* were widely and honorably known in tlieii* day as 
London bankers or merchants. Sir Matthew Decker, besides 
being eminent as a London merchant, was distinguished for 
the excellence of his writings on commercial subjects, then 
little understood ; and he made a useful member of Parlia- 
ment, having been elected for Bishop's Castle in 1719, 

Various members of the present landed gentry trace their 
descent from the Flemish refugees. Thus Jacques Hoste, 
the founder of the present family (represented by Sir W.L. S. 
Hoste, Bart), fled from Bruges, of which his father was gov- 
ernor, in 1569; the Tyssens (now represented by W. G.Tys- 
sen Amhurst, Esq., of Foulden) fled from Ghent ; and the 
Crusos of JSTorfolk fled from Hownescout in Flanders, all to 
take refuge in England. 

Among artists, architects, and engineers of Flemish descent 
we find Grinlin'g Gibbons, the wood sculptor ; Mark Gerrard, 
the portrait painter ; Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect and 
play-writer ; Richard Cosway, R. A.,f the -miniature painter ; 
and Sir Cornelius Vermuyden and Westerdyke, the engineers 
employed in the reclamation of the di-owned lands in the Fen 
districts. The Tradescants, the celebrated antiquarians, were 
also of the same origin.J 

One of the most distinguished families in the Netherlands 
was that of the De Grotes or Groots, of which Hugo Grotius 
was an illustrious member. When the Spanish persecutions 
were at their height in the Low Countries, several of the 
Protestant De Grotes, who were eminent as merchants at 

* The Vanneck family is now represented in the peerage by Baron Hunt- 
ingfield. 

t Cosway belonged to a family, originally Flemish, long settled at Tiverton, 
Devon. His father was master of the grammar-school there. 

X TJie Tatler, vol. i., ed. 1786, p. 435, in a note, says, "John Tradescant 
senior is supposed to have been of Dutch or Flemish extraction, and to have 
settled in this kingdom probably about the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, 
or in the beginning of the reign of James I. " Father and son were veiy in- 
genious persons, and worthy of esteem for their early promotion and culture 
of the science of natural history and botany. The son formed the Tradescant 
Museum at Oxfox'd. 



CHANGES OF NAME. 311 

Antwerp, fled from tliat city, a^d took refuge, some in En- 
gland and others in Germany. Several of the Flemish De 
Grotes had before then settled in England. Thus, among 
the letters of denization contained in Mr. Brewer's Calendar 
of State Fapers, Henry YIH, we find the following : 

" Ambrose de Grote, merchant, of the Duchy of Brabant (Letters of Deni- 
zation, Patent 11th of Jmie, 1510, 2 Henry Vm.). 

" 12 Feby., 1512-13. Protection for one yeai- for Ambrose and Peter de 
Grote, merchants of Andwarp, in Brabant, going in the retinue of Sir Gilbert 
Talbot, Deputy of Calais." 

One of the refugee Grotes is supposed to have settled 
as a merchant at Bremen, from which city the grandfather 
of the present Mi'. Grote, the historian of Greece, came over 
to London early in the last century, and established first a 
mercantile house and afterward a banking house, both of 
which flourished. But Mr. Grote is also of Huguenot blood, 
being descended by his mother's side from Colonel Blosset, 
commander of " Blosset's Foot," the scion of an ancient Prot- 
estant family of Touraine, an officer in the army of Queen 
Anne, and the proprietor of a considerable estate in the 
county of Dublin, where he settled subsequent to the Revo- 
cation of the Edict of Nantes. 

The great French immigration which ensued on the last- 
named event, being the most recent, has left much more no- 
ticeable traces in English family history and nomenclature, 
notwithstanding the large proportion of the refugees and 
their descendants who threw aside their French names and 
adopted them in an English translation. Thus L'Oiseau be- 
came Bird ; Le Jeune, Young ; Le Blanc, White ; Le I^oir, 
Black ; Le Maur, Brown ; Le Roy, King ; Lacroix, Cross ; Le 
Monnier, Miller ; Dulau, Waters ; and so on. Some of the 
Lefevres changed their name to the English equivalent of 
Smith, as was the case with the ancestor of Sir Culling Eard- 
ley Smith, Bart., a French refugee whose original name was 
Le Fevre. Many names were strangely altered in their con- 
version from French into English. Jolifemme was freely 



312 DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

translated into Pretyman — a name well known in the Church; 
Momerie became Mummery, a common name at Dover ; and 
Planche became Plank, of which there are instances at Can- 
terbury and Southampton. At Oxford, the name of Willam- 
ise was traced back to Villebois ; Taillebois became Talboys ; 
Le Coq, Laycock; Bouchier, Butcher or Boxer; Coquerel, 
Cockerill ; Drouet, Drewitt ; D'Aeth, Death ; D'Orleans, Dor- 
ling; and Sauvage, Savage and Wild. Other pure French 
names were dreadfully vulgarized. Thus Conde became 
Cundy ; Chapuis, Shoppee ; De Preux, Diprose ; De Moulins, 
Mullins ; Pelletier, Pelter ; Huyghens, Huggins or Higgins ; 
and Beaufoy, Boffy !* 

Many pure French names have, however, been preserved ; 
and one need only turn over the pages of a London Directory 
to recognize the large proportion which the descendants of 
the Huguenots continue to form of the modern population of 
the metropolis. But a short time smce, in readmg the re- 
port of a meeting of the district board of works at Wands- 
worth — where the refugees settled in such numbers as to 
form a considerable congregation — we recognized the names 
of Lobjoit,Baringer,Fourdrinier,Poupart, and others, unmis- 
takably French. Such names are constantly " cropping out" 
in modern literature, science, art, and manufactures. Thus 
we recognize those of Delainef and Fonblanque in the press ; 
Rigaud and Roget in science ; Dargan (originally Dargent) 
in railway construction ; Pigou in gunpowder ; Gillott in 
steel pens ; Courage in beer ; and Courtauld in silk. 

* Mr. Lower, in his Patromjmica Britannica, suggests that Richard De- 
spair, a poor man buried at East Grinstead in 172G, was, in the orthogi-aphy 
of his ancestors, a Despard. 

Among other conversions of French into English names may be mentioned 
the following : Letellier, converted into Taylour ; Brasseur into Brassey ; 
Batcheher into Bachelor ; Lenoir into Lennard ; De Leau into Dillon ; Pi- 
gou into Pigott; Breton into Britton; Dieudonne into Dudney; Baudoir 
into Baudry ; Guilbert into Gilbert ; Koch into Cox ; Renalls into Reynolds ; 
Merineau into Meiyon ; Petit into Pettit ; Reveil into Revill ; Saveroy into 
Savery ; Gebon into Gibbon ; Scardeville into SharweU ; Levereau into Le- 
ver ; and so on with many more. 

t Peter de Laine, Esq. , a Protestant refugee, French tutor to the children 
of the Duke of York, obtained letters of naturalization dated 14:th of October, 
1681. — DuKKANT Cooper's Lists, etc., 30-1. 



TEE QUEEN. 313 



That the descendants of the Huguenots have vindicated 
and continued to practice that liberty of thought and wor- 
ship for which their fathers sacrificed so much, is sufficiently 
obvious from the fact that among them we find men holding 
such widely different views as the brothers Newman, Father 
Faber and James Martineau, Dr. Pusey and the Rev. Hugh 
Stowell. The late Rev. Sydney Smith was a man of a differ- 
ent temperament from all these. He was himself accustomed 
to attribute much of his constitutional gayety to the circum- 
stance of his grandfather having married Maria Olier, the 
daughter of a French Protestant refugee — a woman whom 
he characterizes as " of a noble countenance and as noble a 
mind." 

From the peerage to the working class, the descendants of 
the refugees are to this day found pervading the various 
ranks of English society. The Queen of England herself is 
related to them, through her descent from Sophia Dorothea, 
granddaughter of the Marquis d'Olbreuse, a Protestant noble- 
man of Poitou. The marquis was one of the numerous French 
exiles who took refuge in Brandenburg on the Revocation of 
the Edict of ]!:^antes. The Duke of Zell married his only 
daughter, whose issue was Sophia Dorothea, the wife of 
George Louis, Elector of Hanover, afterward George L of 
England. The son of Sophia Dorothea succeeded to the En- 
glish throne as George H., and her daughter married Fred- 
erick William, afterward King of Prussia ; and thus Hugue- 
not blood continues to run in the royal families of the two 
great Protestant states of the North. 

Several descendants of French Huguenots have become el- 
evated to the British peerage. Of these the most ancient is 
the family of Trench, originally De la Tranche, the head of 
which is the Earl of Clancarty. Frederick, lord of La Tranche 
in Poitou, took refuge in England about the year 1574, short- 
ly after the massacre of St. Bartholomew. He settled for a 
time in Northumberland, from whence he passed over into 
Ireland. Of his descendants, one branch founded the peerage 



314 DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES, 

of Clancarty, and another that of Ashtown. Several mem- 
bers of the family have held high offices in Church and State, 
among whom may be mentioned Power le Poer Trench, the 
last Archbishop of Tuam, and the present Archbishop of 
Dubhn, in whom the two Huguenot names of Trench and 
Chenevix are honorably united. 

Among other peers of Huguenot origin are Lord i^orth- 
wick, descended from John Rushout, a French refugee who 
established himself in London in the reign of Charles L; Lord 
de Blaquiere, descended from John de Blacquire, a scion of a 
noble French family, who settled as a merchant in London 
shortly after the Revocation; and Lord Rendlesham, de- 
scended from Peter Thelusson, grandson of a French refugee 
who about the same time took refuge in Switzerland. 

Besides these elevations to the peerage of descendants of 
Huguenots in the direct male line, many of the daughters of 
distiuguished refugees and their offspring formed unions with 
noble families, and led to a farther intermingling of the blood 
of the Huguenots with that of the English aristocracy. Thus 
the blood of the noble family of Ruvigny mingles with that 
of Russell* (Duke of Bedford) and Cavendish (Duke of Dev- 
onshire); of Schombergwith that of Osborne (Duke of Leeds); 
of Champagne {nee De la Rochefoucauld) with that of Forbes 
(Earl of Granard) ; of Portal and Boileau with that of Elliot 
(Earl of Minto) ; of Auriol with that of Hay Drummond (Earl 
of Elnnoul) ; of D'Albiacf with that of Innes-Ker (Duke of 

* Bachel, daughter of Daniel de Massue, Seignem* de Ruvigny, manied 
Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, in 1634. The countess died in 
1637, leaving two daughters, one of whom, Elizabeth, aftei-ward married the 
Earl of Gainsborough, and the other, Rachel, married, first Lord Vaughan, 
and secondly William Lord Russell, known as " the patriot. " Every one has 
heard of his celebrated wife, the daughter of a Ruvigny, whose son afterward 
became second Duke of Bedford, and whose two daughters man-ied, one the 
Duke of Devonshire, and the other the Marquis of Granby. 

t The D'Albiacs were a noble Protestant family of Nismes, who were al- 
most exterminated at the Revocation. The father, mother, fom- sons, and 
three daughters were murdered. Two sons escaped death, one of whom ab- 
jured Protestantism to save the family estate, the other sent his two children 
to England, dispatching them in hampers. They arrived safely, and founded 
two families. The late Lieutenant General Sir J. C. Dalbiac was the lineal 



TBE NOBILITY. 315 



Roxburghe) ; of La Touche with that of Butler-Danvers (Earl 
of Lanesborough) ; of Montolieu with that of Murray (Lord 
Elibank) ; and so on in numerous other instances. 

Among recent peerages are those of Taunton, Eversley, 
and Romilly, all direct descendants of Huguenots. The first 
Labouchere who settled in England was Peter Csesar La- 
bouchere. He had originally taken refuge from the persecu- 
tion in Holland, where he joined the celebrated house of Hope 
at Amsterdam, and he came over to London as the represent- 
ative of that firm. He eventually acquired wealth and dis- 
tinction, and the head of the family now sits in the House of 
Lords as Baron Taunton. 

The Lefevres originally came from Poitou, where Sebastian 
Lefevre, M.D., was distinguished as a physician. Pierre, one 
of his sons, suffered death for his religion. The father, with 
his two other sons, John and Isaac, took refuge in England. 
The former entered the army, and rose to the rank of lieuten- 
ant colonel, serving under Marlborough aU through his cam- 
paigns in the Low Countries. The second son, Isaac, from 
whom Lord Eversley (late Speaker of the House of Com- 
mons) is lineally descended, commenced and carried on suc- 
cessfully the business of a silk manufacturer in Spitalfields. 
John Lefevre, the last of the Spitalfields branch in the male 
line, possessed considerable property at Old Ford, which is 
still in the family; and his only daughter Helena having 
married Charles Shaw, of Lincoln's Inn, in 1789, theii* de- 
scendants have since borne the name and arms of the Le- 
fevres.* 

The story of the Romilly family is well known through 
the admirable autobiography left by the late Sir Samuel 
Romilly, and published by his sons.f The great-grandfather 

descendant of one of them, and his only daughter married the present Duke 
of Roxburghe. 

* DuRRANT Cooper — Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens: Camden 
Society, 1862. 

t Memoirs of the Life of Sir Samuel Romilly^ written by himself. Edited 
by his Sons. 3 vols. London, 1840. 



316 DESCENDANTS OF TEE REFUGEES. 

of Sir Samuel was a considerable landed proprietor in the 
neighborhood of Montpellier. Though a Protestant by con- 
viction, he conformed to Roman Catholicism, with the object 
of saving the family property for the benefit of his only son. 
Yet he secretly worshiped after his own principles, as well 
as brought up his son in them. The youth, indeed, imbibed 
Protestantism so deeply, that in the year 1701, when only 
seventeen, he went to Geneva for the sole purpose of receiv- 
ing the sacrament — the administration of the office by Prot- 
estant ministers in France rendering them liable, if detected, 
to death or condemnation to the galleys for life. At Geneva 
young Romilly met the celebrated preacher Saurin, then in 
the height of his fame, who happened to be there on a visit. 
The result of his conversations with Saurin was the forma- 
tion in his mind of a fixed determination to leave forever his 
native country, his parents, and the inheritance which await- 
ed him, and trust to his own industry for a subsistence in 
some foreign land, where he might be free to worship God 
according to conscience. 

Young Romilly accordingly set out for London, and it was 
not until he had landed in England that he apprised his fa- 
ther of the resolution he had formed. After a few years' 
residence in London, where he married Judith de Monsallier, 
the daughter of another refugee, Mr. Romilly began the busi- 
ness of a wax-bleacher at Hoxton, his father supplying him 
fi-om time to time with money. But a sad reverse of fortune 
ensued on the death of his father, which shortly after took 
place. A distant relative, who was a Catholic, took posses- 
sion of the family estate, and farther remittances from France 
came to an end. Then followed difficulty, bankruptcy, and 
distress ; and the landowner's son, unable to bear up under his 
calamities, sank under them at an early age, leaving a widow 
and a family of eight children almost entirely unprovided for. 

His youngest son, Peter, father of the future Sir Samuel, 
was bound apprentice to a French refugee jeweler, named 
Lafosse, whose shop was in Broad Street. On .arriving at 



ROMILLY AND BOILEA U. 317 

manliood lie -went to Paris, where he worked as a journey- 
man, saving money enough to make an excursion as far south 
as Montpellier to view the family estate, now in the posses- 
sion of strangers and iiTecoverably lost, since it could only be 
redeemed, if at all, by apostasy. The jeweler eventually re- 
turned to London, married a Miss Gamault, like himself de- 
scended from a Protestant refugee, and began business on his 
own account. He seems to have enjoyed a moderate degree 
of prosperity, living carefully and frugally, bringing up his 
family virtuously and religiously, and giving them as good 
an education as his comparative slender means would admit, 
until the death of a rich relative of his wife, a Mr. de la 
Haize, who left considerable legacies to each member of the 
family, enabled Mr. Romilly to article his son Samuel to a 
clerk in chancery, and enter upon the profession in which he 
eventually acquired so much distinction. It is unnecessary 
to describe his career, which has been so simply and beauti- 
fully related by himself, or to trace the farther history of the 
family, the head of which now sits in the House of Lords un- 
der the title of Baron Romilly. 

The baronetage, as well as the peerage, includes many de- 
scendants of the Huguenots. Jacques Boileau was Lord of 
Castelnau and St. Croix, near Nismes, in the neighborhood 
of which the persecution long raged so furiously. He was 
the father of a family of twenty-two children, and could not 
readily leave France at the Revocation ; but, being known as 
a Protestant, and refusing to be converted, he was arrested 
and placed under restraint, in which condition he died. His 
son Charles fled, first into Holland, and afterward into En- 
gland, where he entered the army, obtained the rank of cap- 
tain, and commanded a corps of French gentlemen under 
Marlborough at the battle of Blenheim. He afterward set- 
tled as a wine-merchant at Dublin, and was succeeded by his 
son. The family prospered ; and the great-grandson of Marl- 
borough's captain was promoted to a baronetcy, the present 
wearer of the title being Sir John Boileau. 



318 DESCENDANTS OF TEE REFUGEES. 

The Crespignys also belonged to a noble family in Lower 
N"ormandy. Claude Champion, Lord of Crespigny, was an 
officer in the French army ; and at the Revocation he fled 
into England, accompanied by his wife, the Comtesse de Yier- 
ville, and a family of eight children, two of whom were car- 
ried on board the ship in which they sailed in baskets. De 
Crespigny entered the British army, and served as colonel 
under Marlborough. The present head of the family is Sir 
C. W. Champion Crespigny, Bart. 

Elias Bonherau, M.D., an eminent physician in Rochelle, 
being debarred the practice of his profession by the edict of 
Louis XTV"., fled into England with his wife and children, 
and settled in L'eland, where his descendants rose to fame 
and honor, the present representative of the family being Sii- 
E. R. Borough, Bart. 

Anthony Yinchon de Bacquencourt, a man eminent for his 
learning, belonged to Rouen, of the Parliament of which his 
father was president. H« was originally a Roman Catholic, 
but, being incensed at the pretended miracles wrought at the 
tomb of the Abbe Paris, he embraced Protestantism, and fled 
from France. He settled in Dublin under the name of Des 
Yoeux (the family surname), and became minister of the 
French church there ; afterward joining the Rev. John Peter 
Droz, another French refugee, in starting the first literary 
journal that ever appeared in L-eland. The present repre- 
sentative of the family is Sir C. Des Yceux, Bart. 

Among other baronets descended from French refugees 
may be mentioned Sir John Lambert, descended from John 
Lambert, of the Isle of Rhe ; Sir J. D. Legard, descended 
from John Legard, of ancient Norman lineage ; Sir A. J. de 
Hochepied Larpent, descended from John de Larpent, of 
Caen; and Sir G. S. Brooke Pechell, descended from the 
Pechells of Montauban, in Languedoc. One of the members 
of the last-mentioned family having embraced Roman Cathol- 
icism, his descendants still hold the family estate in France. 

Many of the refugees and their descendants have also sat in 



HUGUENOTS IN PARLIAMENT. 319 

Parliament, and done good service there. Probably tbe first 
Huguenot member of the House of Commons was PhilipPa- 
pillon, who sat for the city of London in 1695. The Papil- 
lons had suffered much for their religion in France, one of 
them having lain in jail at Avranches for three years. Va- 
rious members of the family have since sat in Parliament for 
Dover, Romney, and Colchester. 

Of past members of Parliament, the Pechells have sat for 
Essex ; the Fonneraus for Aldborough ; the Durants for St. 
Ives and Evesham ; the Devagnes for Barnstaple ; the Man- 
gers for Poole ; the La Roches for Bodmin ; and the Am.yands 
for Tregony, Bodmin, and Camelford. The last member of 
the Amyand family was a baronet, who assumed the name 
of Cornewall on marrying Catharine, the heiress of Yelters 
Cornewall, Esq., of Moccas Court, Herefordshire; and his 
only daughter, having married Sir Thomas FranMand Lewis, 
became the mother of the late Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 
Bart. 

Many descendants of the Huguenots who had settled in 
Lreland also represented constituencies in the Lrish Parlia- 
ment. Thus the La Touches sat for Catherton ; the Chaig- 
neaus for Gowran ; and the celebrated WiUiam Saurin, who 
filled the ofi&ce of L-ish attorney general for fourteen years, 
may be said to have represented all Ireland. He was a man 
of great ability and distinguished patriotism, and, but for his 
lack of ambition, would have been made a judge and a peer, 
both of which dignities he refiised. Colonel Barre, who be- 
longed to the refugee family of the name settled in Ireland, 
is best known by his parliamentary career in England. He 
was celebrated as an orator and a patriot, resisting to the ut- 
most the passing of the American Stamp Act, which severed 
the connection between England and her American colonies. 
In 17 76 he held the office of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and 
afterward that of Paymaster to the Forces for England. 

Among more recent members of Parliament may be men- 
tioned the names of Dupre, Gavin, Hugessen, Jervoise, La- 



320 DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

bouchere, Layard, Lefevre, Lefroy, Paget (of the Leicester- 
shire family, formerly member for Nottingham), Pusey, Tom- 
line, Rebow, and Vandeleur. Mr. Chevalier Cobbold is de- 
scended by the female side from Samuel le Chevalier, minis- 
ter of the French church in London in 1591, one of whose de- 
scendants introduced the well-known Chevalier barley. Mr. 
Du Cane is descended from the same family to which the 
great admiral belonged. The first Du Cane or Du Quesne 
who fled into England for refuge settled at Canterbury, and 
afterward in London. The head of this family was an alder- 
man of the city in 1666, and in the next century his grand- 
son Richard sat for Colchester in Parliament, the present 
representative of the Du Canes being the member for North 
Essex. 

Of the descendants of refugees who were distinguished as 
divines may be mentioned the Majendies, one of whom — John 
James, son of the pastor of the French church at Exeter — 
was Prebendary of Sarum, and a well-known author; and an- 
other, son of the prebendary, became Bishop of Chester, and 
afterward of Bangor. The Saurins also rose to eminence in 
the Church, Louis Saurin, minister of the French church in 
the Savoy, having been raised to the Deanery of St. Patrick's, 
Ai'dagh, while his son afterward became Vicar of Belfast, 
and his grandson Bishop of Dromore. Roger du Quesne, 
grandson of the Marquis du Quesne, was Vicar of East Tud- 
denham in Norfolk, and a prebendary of Ely. 

One of the most eminent scholars of Huguenot origin was 
the Rev. Dr. Jortin, Archdeacon of London. He was the son 
of Ren6 Jortin, a refugee from Brittany, who served as secre- 
tary to three British admirals successively, and went down 
with Sir Cloudesley Shovel in the ship in which he was wrecked 
off the Scilly Isles in 1*707. The son of Rene was entered a 
pupil at the Charter-House, and gave early indications of 
ability, which were justified by the distinction which he short- 
ly after achieved at Cambridge. On the reconmiendation of 
Dr. Thirlby, young Jortin furnished Pope with translations 



HUGUENOT SCHOLARS. 321 

from the commentary of Eustathius on Homer, as well as with 
notes for his translation of the Iliad; but, though Pope 
adapted them almost verbatim, he made no acknowledgment 
of the labors of his young helper. Shortly after, on a fellow- 
ship becoming vacant at Cambridge by the death of William 
Rosen, the descendant of another refugee, Jortin was appoint- 
ed to it. A few years later he was appointed to the vicarage 
of Swavesey, in Cambridgeshire, from whence he removed to 
the living of Kensington, near London. There he distin-- 
guished himself as the author of many learned works, of which 
the best known is his able and elaborate Life of Erasmus. 
He was eventually made Ai*chdeacon of London, and died in. 
1770 at Kensington, where he was buried. 

Another celebrated divine was the Rev. George Lewis Fleu- 
ry, Archdeacon of Waterford — " the good old archdeacon" he 
was called — widely known for his piety, his charity, and his 
goodness. He was descended from Louis Fleury, pastor of 
Tours, who fled into England with his wife and family at the 
Revocation. Several of the Fleurys are still clergymen in 
Ireland. 

The Maturins also have produced somje illustrious men. 
The pastor Gabriel Maturin, from whom they are descended, 
lay a prisoner in the Bastile for twenty-six years on account 
of his religion. But he tenaciously refused to be converted, 
and was at length discharged, a cripple for life, having lost 
the use of his limbs through his confinement. He contrived, 
however, to reach Ireland with some members of his former 
flock, and there he unexpectedly found his wife and two sons, 
of whom he had heard nothing during the long period of his 
imprisonment. His son Peter arrived at some distinction in 
the Church, having become Dean of Ejllala; and his grand- 
son Gabriel James became Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. 
From him descended several clergymen of eminence, one of 
them an eloquent preacher, who is also more generally known 
as the author of two remarkable yjo^^—Melmoth the Wan- 
derer^ and the tragedy oi Bertram, 

X 



322 DESCENDANTS OF TEE REFUGEES. 

There were numerous otlier descendants of the refugees, 
clergymen and others, besides those akeady named, who dis- 
tinguished themselves by their literary productions. Louis 
Dutens, who held the living of Elsdon, in Northumberland, 
produced a successful tragedy, The Eeturn of Ulysses^ when 
only about eighteen years of age. In his later years he was 
the author of numerous works of a more solid character, of 
which one of the best known is his JResearches on the Origin 
of Discoveries attributed to the Moderns — a work full of learn- 
ing and labor. He also wrote an Appeal to Good Sense, being 
a defense of Christianity against Voltau'e and the Encyclo- 
paedists, besides numerous other works. 

The Rev. William Romaine, Rector of St. Ann's, Black- 
friars, was the son of a French refugee who had settled at 
Hartlepool as a merchant and corn-dealer. Mr. Romaine was 
one of the most popular of London clergymen, and his J^ife, 
Walk, and Triumph of Faith is to this day a well-known and 
popular book among religious readers. Romaine has been 
compared to " a diamond, rough often, but very pointed ; and 
the more he was broken by years, the more he appeared to 
shine." Much, of his life was passed in polemical controversy, 
and in maintaining the Calvinistic views which he so strongly 
held. He was a most diligent improver of time ; and, besides 
being exemplary and indefatigable in performing the duties 
of his office, he lefb behind him a large number of able works, 
which were collected and published in 1796, in eight octavo 
volumes. 

The Rev. David Durand, r.R.S., was another voluminous 
writer on history, biography, philosophy, and science. Among 
his various works were those on The Philosophical Writings 
. of Cicero, a History of the Sixteenth Century, and two vol- 
umes in continuation of Rapin's History of England. 

We have already spoken of the distinction achieved by 
Saurin and Romilly at the L-ish and English bar. But they 
did not stand alone. Of the numerous lawyers descended 
from the reftigees, several have achieved no less eminence as 



ILL USTRIO US REFUGEES. 323 

judges than as pleaders. Of these, Baron Mazeres, appointed 
Curzitor Baron of the Exchequer in 1*773, was one of the most 
illustrious. He was no less distinguished as a man of science 
than as a lawyer, his wiitings on arithmetic, algebra, and 
mathematics being still prized.* ' Justice Le Blanc and Sir 
John Bosanquet were also of hke French extraction, the lat- 
ter being descended from Pierre Bosanquet, of Lunel, in Lan- 
guedoc. Chief Justice Lefroy and Justice Perrin, of the Irish 
bench, were in lite manner descended from Huguenot fami- 
lies long settled in Ireland. 

A long list might be given, in addition to those already 
mentioned, of persons illustrious in hterature, science, and the 
arts, who sprang from the same stock ; but we must be con- 
tent with mentioning only a few. Peter Anthony Motteaux 
was not less distinguished for his enterprise as an East India 
merchant than for his ability as a writer; and Sir John 
Charden, the traveler and author, afterward jeweler to the 
court, was esteemed in his time as a man of great parts and 
of noble character. Garrick, the great English actor, was 
for the most part French, his real name being Garrigue, that 
of the Huguenot family to which he belonged. The French 

* Wmiam Cobbett says of him, *' I knew the baron well. He was a most 
conscientious man ; he was, when 1 first knew him, still a very clever man ; 
he retained all his faculties to a very great age. ... He was the only man 
that I ever heard of who refused to have his salaiy augmented when an aug- 
mentation offered, and when all. other such salaries were augmented. . . . 
The baron was a most implacable enemy of the Roman Catholics, as Catho- 
lics. Thei*e was rather a peculiar reason for this : his grandfather having 
been a French Huguenot, and having fled with his children to England at the 
time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. . . . There was great excuse 
for the baron. He had been told that his father and mother had been driven 
out of France by the Catholics ; and there was that mother dinning this in 
his ears, and all manner of horrible stories along with it, during all the tender 
years of his life. In short, the prejudice made part of his very frame. . . . 
The baron was a very humane man ; his humanity made him assist to support 
the French emigrant priests ; but, at the same time, he caused Sir Richard 
Musgrove's book against the Irish Catholics to be published at his own ex- 
pense. He and I never agreed upon this subject ; but this subject was, vdth 
him, a vital one. He had no asperity in his nature ; he was natm-ally all 
gentleness and benevolence, and tberefore he never resented what I said to 
him on this subject (and which nobody else ever, I believe, ventured to say to 
him) ; but he did not like it ; and he liked it the less because I certainly beat 
him in the argument." — Rural Rides, ed. 1830, p. 251-3. 



324 DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

D'Aubignes have given us several eminent men, bearing the 
name of Daubeny, celebrated in natural history. Among 
other men of science we note the names of Rigaud, Sivilian 
professor of astronomy at Oxford, and Roget the physiolo- 
gist, author of one of the Bridgewater treatises. The Rev. 
G. J. Faber also is descended from a French refugee who 
came over at the Revocation. The Martineaus, so well 
known in English literature, are descended from Gaston Mar- 
tineau, a surgeon of Dieppe, who settled at ISTorwich in 1685; 
and the Barbaulds are sprung from a minister of the French 
church of La Patente in London. Some of our best novelists 
have been of like French extraction. Captain Marryatt and 
Captain Chamier, whose nautical tales have charmed so many 
English readers, were both descended from illustrious Hugue- 
nots, as was also Tom D'Urfey, the English song- writer ; and 
Miss Bumey and Mrs. Radcliffe* were in hke manner de- 
scended by the female side from Protestant refugees. It has 
also been supposed that the family of De Foe (or Yaux) were 
of Huguenot origin. 

Several men of considerable distinction in science and in- 
vention emanated from the Huguenot settlers in Spitalfields, 
which long continued to be the great French quarter of Lon- 
don. The French hand-loom weavers were in many respects 
a superior class of workmen, though their earnings were com- 
paratively small in amount. Their employment was seden- 
tary, and it was entirely of a domestic character, the work- 
shop being almost invariably situated over the dwelling, and 
approached through it. All the members of the family took 
part in the work, which was of such a nature as not to pre- 
vent conversation ; and when several looms were worked on 
the same floor, this was generally of an intellectual charac- 
ter. One of the young people was usually appointed to read 
to those at work, it might be a book on history, or frequently 
a controversial work, the refugee divines being among the 

* Mrs. Radcliffe was descended from a Walloon family, the De Witts, set- 
tled at Hatfield Chase. 



THE SPITALFIELDS WEAVERS. 325 

most prolific authors of their time. Nor were the sufferings 
of the Huguenots at the galleys and iu the prisons through- 
out France forgotten in the dwellings of the exiles, who often 
spoke of them to their children, and earnestly enjoined them 
to keep steadfast in the faith for which their fathers had en- 
dured so much. 

The circumstances in which the children of the Huguenot 
workmen were thus brought up — their domestic training, 
their religious discipline, and their school culture — rendered 
them for the most part intelligent and docile, while their in- 
dustry was proverbial The exiles indulged in simple pleas- 
ures, and were especially noted for their love of flowers. 
They vied with one another in the production of the finest 
plants, and wherever they settled they usually set up a flori- 
cultural society to exhibit their products. One of the first 
societies of the kind in England was that established by the 
exiles in Spitalfields ; and when a body of them went over 
to Dublin to carry on the manufacture of poplins, they pro- 
ceeded to set on foot the celebrated Flower Club which still 
exists in that city. Others of them, who settled in Manches- 
ter and Macclesfield, carried thither the same love of flowers 
and botany, which still continues so remarkably to charac- 
terize theii- descendants. 

Among the hand-loom weavers of Spitalfields were also to 
be found occasional inquirers into physical science, as well as 
several distinguished mathematicians. They were encour- 
aged in these studies by the societies which were established 
for their cultivation, a philosophical hall having been founded 
with that object in Crispin Street, Spitalfields.* Though 
Simpson and Edwards, both professors of mathematics at 
Woolwich, were not of French extraction, they were both 
silk -weavers in Spitalfields, and taught the mathematics 
there. The DoUonds, however, were of pure French origin. 
The parents of John Dollond were Protestant refugees from 

* The building, which stall exists, is now used as an earthenware-store. 



DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES. 



ISrorniandy, from whence they came shortly after the Revo- 
cation. His father was a silk-weaver, to which trade John 
was also brought up. From an early age he displayed a 
genius for construction, and he embraced every opportunity 
of reading and studying books on geometry, mathematics, 
and general science. He was, however, unable to devote 
more than his spare moments to such subjects ; and when 
he reached manhood and married, his increasing family com- 
pelled him to work at his loom more assiduously than ever. 
I^everthelesSjhe went on accumulating information, not only 
on mathematics, but on anatomy, natural history, astronomy, 
and optics, reading also extensively in divinity and ecclesi- 
astical history. In order to read the New Testament in the 
original, he even learned Greek, and to extend his knowledge 
of foreign literature, he also learned Latin, French, German, 
and Italian. 

John DoUond apprenticed his eldest son Peter to an op- 
tician; and on the expuy of the young man's apprenticeship, 
at the age of twenty, he opened a shop in Vine Street, Spital- 
fields. The business proved so prosperous that, shortly after, 
the elder Dollond was induced to leave his loom at the age 
of forty-six, and enter into partnership with his son as an op- 
tician. He was now enabled to devote himself wholly to his 
favorite studies, and to pursue as a business the art which 
before had occupied him chiefly as an amusement. 

One of the first subjects to which Dollond devoted him- 
self was the improvement of the refracting telescope. He 
entered on a series of experiments, which extended over sev- 
eral years, at first without results ; but at length, after " a 
resolute perseverance" (to use his own words), he made the 
decisive experiment which showed the error of it^ewton's 
conclusion as to the supposed law of refraction. The papers 
embodying DoUond's long succession of experiments were 
printed in the Transactions of the Philosophical Society, and 
for the last of them he was awarded the Royal Society's 
Copley medaL The result of the discovery was an immedi- 



LEWIS PAUL. 327 



ate great improvement in tlie powers and accuracy of the 
telescope and microscope, of which, the Dollond firm reaped 
the result in a large increase of business, which still contin- 
ues in the family. 

We might greatly enlarge the list of descendants of the 
Huguenots illustrious for their inventions in the arts, hut 
will conclude with a brief account of the life of Lewis Paul, 
partly because it is little known, and also because his inven- 
tion of spinning by rollers, subsequently revived and success- 
fully applied by Sir Richard Arkwright, has exercised so ex- 
traordinary an influence on the manufacturing system of En- 
gland and the world at large. 

Lewis Paul was the son of a French refugee who carried 
on business as a druggist in St. Paul's Church-yard. By this 
calling he acquired a considerable property, and at his death 
he left his son under the guardianship of Lord Shaftesbury, 
and his brother the Honorable M. A. Cooper. We have no in- 
formation as to his bringing up, but gather from his papers 
that Lewis led a gay life as a young man, fell into bad com- 
pany, and, to pay his debts, mortgaged the valuable property 
in the parish of St. Bride's which his father had left him. He 
was evidently on the high road to ruin unless he reformed 
his habits, and that speedily. He had the courage to break 
off his connection with his former associates, though by that 
time his purse was nearly empty ; and he proceeded to apjDly 
himself to business connected with invention. 

Li a letter addressed by him to the Earl of Shaftesbury, 
son of his guardian, many years later, Paul said : " As it too 
often happens with young sparks, I made but an ill use of 
my position and patronage. However, before the calamities 
I had laid the foundation of had reached me, I had exerted 
myself to the repair of my affairs with such ardor and suc- 
cess, that, notwithstanding the various impediments necessa- 
rily in the way of a person who had spent his time in every 
way so remote from the arts of trade, I nevertheless com- 
pleted a machine of great value in the most extensive manu- 



328 DESCENDANTS OF THE BEFUGEES. 

facture of thekingdouL"* The machine to which he thus 
referred was that for spinning by rollers, on the principle 
subsequently adopted and completed by Sir Richard Ark- 
wright. 

It appears that the first invention of Paul was a machine 
for the pinking of crapes, tammies, etc., which brought him 
considerable profit. He employed a number of women to 
work the machine, among whom we find Mrs. Demoulins, a 
protegee of Dr. Johnson, frequently referred to in Boswell's 
Life, It is probable that Paul's connection with the French 
manufacturers of Spitalfields served to direct his attention to 
the invention of new methods of facilitating production, with 
the object of turning th^m to account in the raising of his 
depressed fortunes. 

Shortly after we find him in communication with John 
Wyatt, of Weeford, near Lichfield, afterward of Birmingham, 
well known in his district as a highly ingenious and expert 
workman. It appears from the papers of Wyatt, which we 
have carefully examined,f that he had invented a file-cutting 
machine, which he agreed to disi^ose of, " when perfected," to 
one Richard Heely, of Birmingham, a gunmaker, for certam 
considerations. But Heely having become involved in diffi- 
culties, the agreement came to an end, and Wyatt looked out 
for another customer for his invention. Such he found in 
Lewis Paul; and in September, 1732, an agreement was en- 
tered into between them, in which Paul is described as " of 
the parish of St. Andrew's, Holbom, gentleman," and Wyatt 
as " of the parish of Weeford, county of Stafibrd, carpenter." 
By this agreement Paul bound himself to the same terms as 
Heely had done, though the machine was declared to be " not 
yet perfected and completed." Paul, however, being unable 
to pay the stipulated instalments, reconveyed the invention 
to Wyatt in the following year by a deed in which it is de- 

* Paper read by Kobert Cole, P.S.A., before the British Association at 
Leeds, 1858. 

t These papers have been kindly lent us for examination by Mrs. Silvester, 
a descendant of John Wyatt. 



LEWIS PAUL. 329 



scribed as " a certain tool or instrument intended to be used 
in and for the cutting of files."* 

We next find Paul residing at Birmingham, and Wyatt 
employed under his directions in bringing out a new inven- 
tion for spinning fibrous materials by machinery. It is said 
that Wyatt had before that time made a model of such a ma- 
chine while residing at Sutton Coldfield, by means of which 
he was enabled to spin thread successfiilly ; and probably 
Paul was only acting on the suggestion first thrown out by 
Wyatt, in proceeding to join him for the purpose of bringing 
the machine to perfection. Both were equally short of mon- 
ey, but Paul had greater facilities for raising means among 
his London friends, at the same time that he carried on his 
business of pinking crape and tammies. Both were men of 
hot temper, and being hampered for want of money and 
struggling with difficulties, they often quarreled violently, 
and usually ended by agreeing and working together again. 
The invention seems to have occupied the minds of both for 
more than four years, during which time they occasionally 
proceeded to London, Paul to try and raise money among 
his friends, and Wyatt to visit the manufacturers' shops in 
Spitalfields and obtain practical hints from the manufac- 
turers for the purposes of the machine. 

Paul returned to Birmingham, leaving Wyatt in London 
to proceed with " the work ;" the former sending remittances 
in payment of Wyatt's agreed salary, according as the mon- 
ey could be raised. In one of Paul's letters, inclosing a 
remittance for salary and " work done," he says : " As to 
particulars, I dare say when you see Perriere's work you'll 
remember the whole design I have laid down." Li a letter 
written two days later, Paul says : " When I wrote you last, 
being in a good deal of haste, I apprehend that I omitted 
some directions necessary. A principal was, that you should 
take a lodging either where you are not known, or where 
you can have the highest confidence to remove the tool to, 
* Wyatt MSS. 



330 DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

and to prepare that work, for I would not have it seen by 
any body besides yourself for any reasons." Toward the 
end of the year 1737 Paul was still struggling with difficul- 
ties as to money, putting off Wyatt with excuses, assuring 
him that if it were possible to borrow he should be supplied 
forthwith, and that he himself was extremely anxious to be 
in town, but could not stu- for want of the ''^primum mdbiW 
In his next letter, all that he could send "Wyatt was two 
guineas, which he had raised "with much difficulty;" but he 
hoped to have more soon, when he would immediately set 
out for London. 

In the beginning of 1738, Paul wrote to Wyatt in great 
joy, having been at length enabled to obtain a sum of mon- 
ey from Mr. Warren, a .Birmingham bookseller ; but it had 
been advanced on the express condition that it was to be in- 
vested in Paul's crape business, over which Mi*. Warren was 
to have control, excepting the sum of £70, which Paul was to 
be at liberty to employ for his own purposes. On the 
strength of this advance, he proceeded to ask Wyatt if he 
would engage to work on a salary for six months, with a 
view to the perfecting of the machine. Wyatt answered 
that he could give four days a week, at 55. a day, to the for- 
warding of Paul's work, taking a payment of 17s. weekly on 
account, and leaving the rest to accumulate until Paul was 
able to pay him. This was a most generous offer on the part 
of Wyatt, who was laboring with self-denying zeal to perfect 
the invention, occasionally pawning his clothes to maintain 
himself and wife until remittances arrived from Biniiingham, 
the suit which he wore being so ragged that he declared he 
was ashamed to be seen abroad in it. 

In the mean time Paul was impatient for the completion 
of the model, which was delayed in consequence of the se- 
crecy which was observed with respect to it, the whole of 
the work having to be done by Wyatt himself. At length 
the model was ready, and Paul proceeded to London to take, 
out a patent for the invention of spinning wool and cotton by 



SPINNING BYJIOLLERS. 331 

means of rollers. His petition was enrolled in January, I'JSS, 
and the patent was issued in the month of July following. 
The process detailed in the specification is clearly akin to 
that afterward revived by Arkwright, and by him turned to 
such profitable account. The sliver " is put between a pah- 
of rollers," . . . and, " being turned round by their motion, 
draws in the raw mass of wool or cotton to be spun in pro- 
portion to the velocity of such rollers ;" and " a succession' 
of other rollers, moving proportionately faster than the rest, 
draw the rope, thread, or sliver into any degree of fineness 
that may be required j" in addition to which, " the bobbyn, 
spole, or quiU, upon which the thread is spun, is so contrived 
as to draw faster than the first rollers give, and in such pro- 
portion as the sliver is supposed to be diminished." The 
whole princiiple of spuming by rollers is clearly embodied in 
this description ; and that it was the invention of Lewis 
Paul is clear from a memorandum in the handwriting of 
John Wyatt, found among his papers, to the following ef- 
fect : 

" Thoughts originally Mr. PauVs. — 1. The joining of the 
rolls. 2. Their passing through cylinders. 3. The calcula- 
tion of the wheels, by which means the bobbin draws faster 
than those cylinders : this, I presume, was picked up some- 
where before I knew him." 

The rest of the details of the invention were claimed by 
Wyatt — " the horizontal and tracer, the conic whorves," the 
proportional size of the spindle and bobbin, and sundry other 
mechanical details of the machine. 

But, though Paul secured a patent for his invention, and 
sold sundry licenses to manufacturers to spin wool and cot- 
ton after his process, it does not appear that it proved very 
successfciL James Johnson, a manufacturer in Spitalfields, 
bought a license to use 150 spindles. Warren, the Birming- 
ham bookseller, took a license for 50 spindles, in considera- 
tion of the money owing to him by Paul, being induced to 
do so by the favorable report of Dr. James, of fever-powder 



332 DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

celebrity.*. Edward Cave also, tlie printer of the Gentle- 
man^s Magazine^ was tempted to embark in tbe speculation. 
He bought from Paul a license for 250 spindles, and in 1'740 
he started a spinning-mill on Turnhill Brook, a little to the 
north of Fleet Bridge, at the back of Field Lane, Holborn. 
John Wyatt was so sanguine as to the success of the inven- 
tion that he too, like Warren, agreed to take a grant of 300 
spindles in discharge of the debt of £820 which Paul by this 
time owed to him. 

But all the attempts made to spin by Paul's machine 
proved comparatively unsuccessful as regarded profitable re- 
sults. Johnson's mill in Spitalfields was accidentally burned 
down, and he did not care to repeat the experiment. Cave 
could not work his spindles to a profit, though the mill was 
superintended by Paul himself, and it was shortly given up. 
Wyatt was not more fortunate. He first started fifty spin- 
dles in a large warehouse near the Well in the Upper Priory, 
Birmingham. The movement was given to the machinery 
by two or more asses working round an axis, and required 
some ten girls to attend to the work. After a short trial, 
Wyatt found himself in difficulties and in debt, and a few 
months later we find him a prisoner in the Fleet. His as- 
signees sold the spindles to a Mr. Samuel Touchet (a French 
refugee), of ITorthampton, whither they were removed from 
Birmingham ; and Wyatt, having taken advantage of the In- 
solvent Debtors' Act, and obtained his discharge, went down 
to jKTorthampton to superintend in person the erection and 
working of the spinning factory. 

It is not necessary to describe the Northampton adventure. 
Suffice it to say, that after working for more than ten years,t 

* Dr. James wi-ote to Mr. Warren thus : " Yesterday I went to see Mr. 
Paul's machine, which gave us all entire satisfaction, both in regard to the 
carding and spinning. You have nothing to do but to get a purchaser for 
yom- grant : the sight of the thing is demonstration enough. I am certain 
that if Paul could begin with ten thousand pounds, he must, or at least might, 
get more money in twenty years than the city of London is worth." 

t In 1757 we find John Wyatt, disgusted vdth the results of the spinning 
adventure, sending the remainder of his spindles to the manager of the mill 



FAILURE OF THE SPINNING-MILLS. 333 

the factory was given up as a failure, Paul alleging that the 
chief cause lay in the mismanagement of the owners. Touch- 
et was glad to get out of the concern at a loss ; on which Ed- 
ward Cave, doubtless persuaded by Paul, entered upon a 
lease of the factory ; but at his death shortly after, his 
brother Joseph, to whom the property devolved, became so 
disheartened that he resolved to abandon the enterprise. 
Paul, still fii-mly believing in the soundness of his project, 
next took a lease of the IsTorthampton mill for twenty-one 
years ; but, being unable to pay the rent, Cave put in a dis- 
tress for the moneys due to him. On this and other occasions 
we find Dr. Johnson negotiating between Paul and the Caves, 
and endeavoring to bring them to terms.* The machinery 
of the mill at Northampton was eventually sold for the price 
of the materials ; and the experiment, promising as it seemed, 
and embodying, as it did, the principles of an invention 
which has since enriched thousands, ended, for the time, in 
disaster to all concemed.f 

Paul continued to add to his inventions. He invented a 
carding machine in 1748, which he patented; and, ten years 

at Northampton : "You have herewith," he said, "a reversion of old gim- 
cracks, which, by order of Mi*. Yeo, I am directed to send to you. I most 
heartily wish Mr. Yeo better success than any of his predecessors have had." 

* BosweWs Life of Johnson, by Croker. 1 voL, ed. 1853, p. 43, 101-2-3. 

t So far as we can judge from the Wyatt MSS., Paul was tiie inventor of 
the principle of spinning by rollers, and Wyatt the skilled mechanic who em- 
bodied the principle in a working machine. In a letter addressed by the Lit- 
ter to Sir H. Gough, he describes himself as " the principal agent, I might al- 
most say the sole compiler, of the machine for spinning." Wyatt afteinvard 
proved his abihty both as a mechanic and an inventor. The machine for 
weighing loaded carriages, still in use, was invented by him. Among his 
other inventions was a method of neutralizing the friction of wheels by siur- 
rounding the wearing parts of the axle with three or more cylinders inclosed 
in a steel box impervious to dust — an invention for which several patents have 
since been taken out, and in one of which Wyatt's expedient has been applied 
with success in railway turn-tables. Another of his contrivances was a double 
lathe, of beautiful construction and arrangement, for cutting out of bone the 
mould in which a peculiar kind of button was formed, which proved of much 
use in the Birmingham trade. Dming the later years of his life he was em- 
ployed by Matthew JBoulton, to whom he was of great service in erecting the 
machinery for Soho. He died in 1766, and his funeral was attended by the 
principal inhabitants of Birmingham — Baskerville, the printer (also descend- 
ed from a French refugee), a man of eccentric character, arraying himself on 
the occasion in a splendid suit of gold lace. 



334 DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES. 

later, lie took out a second patent for a spinning machine, 
substantially the same as the first, embodying many im- 
provements in detail, though not in principle. He did not, 
however, long survive the grant of this patent, but died 
shortly after, in April, 1759, at Brook Green, Kensington. 

The invention at which Paul had labored with such unfor- 
tunate results was at length perfected and introduced into 
successM practice by Arkwright in 1768, his patent for spin- 
ning by rollers having been taken out in the following year. 
In course of time the invention was generally adopted, and 
the cotton manufactui-e became one of the great staple 
trades of the north of England. The invention of the steam- 
engine by Watt gave another great impulse to this branch 
of industry; and the further invention of the power -loom 
gave almost the death-blow to hand-loom weaving. 

From that time the manufactures of Spitalfields, of Dublin, 
and the other places where the descendants of the refugee 
artisans had principally settled, fell into comparative decay. 
Many of the artisans, following the current of trade, left their 
looms in Spitalfields, and migrated to Coventry, MsLcclesfield, 
Manchester, and the other northern manufacturing towns, 
then rapidly rising in importance'. The stronger and more 
self-reliant pushed out into the world; the more quiescent 
and feeble remained behind. The hand-loom trade could not 
be revived, and no amount of patient toil and industry could 
avert the distress that fell upon the poor silk-weavers, which, 
even to this day, from time to time sends up its wail in the 
eastern parts of London.* 

* The Rev. Isaac Taylor, incumbent of St. Matthias, Bethnal Green, in a 
letter to the Times of the 14th of February last, thus describes the state of 
the district : 

"This portion of Bethnal Green is the headquarters of what is known as 
the Spitalfields silkrtrade. The silk-weavers, by whom the parish of St. 
Matthias is mainly populated, are descendants of those Huguenot exiles who, 
for the cause of God and truth, and liberty and life, fled from the sunny 
plains of their native Prance in the yeai's which succeeded the massacre of 
St. Bartholomew, and who were encouraged by Queen Elizabeth and her ad- 
visers to bring their valuable industry to this country, and to settle on the 
lands adjacent to the Hospital of St. Mary — the Hospital or "Spital-fields," 



THEIR EOME-LIFE, 335 

Owing to these circumstances, as well as to the gradual 
intermingling of the foreign with the native population, the 
French element year by year became less marked in Spital- 
fields, and in the course of a few generations the religious 
fervor which had distinguished the original Huguenot refu- 
gees entu-ely died out in their descendants. They might 
continue to frequent the French churches, but it was in con- 
stantly decreasing numbers. The foreign congregations, 
which had been so flourishing about the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, toward the end of it became the mere 
shadows of what they had been, and at length many of them 
were closed altogether, or were turned over to other denom- 
inations. 

Sir Samuel Romilly, in his Autobiography, gives a touch- 
ing account of the domestic life of his father's family — their 
simple pleasures, their reading, society, and conversation. 
iNTearly all the visitors and Mends of the family were of 
French descent. They associated together, worshiped to- 
gether, and intermarried among each other. The children 
went to a school kept by a refugee. On Sunday mornings 
French was exclusively spoken in the family circle, and at 
least once in the day the family pew in the French Artillery 
Church was regularly filled. " My father," says Sir Samuel, 
"had a pew in one of the French chapels, which had been es- 
tablished when the Protestant refugees first emigrated into 
England, and he required us to attend alternately there and 
at the parish church [this was about the year 1770], It was 

as they were called, •which were then just outside the walls of London. The 
descendants of these emigrants continue to inhabit the district. Many of 
them still cherish proud traditions of their ancestry ; many of them, though- 
now perhaps only clad in rags, bear the olS historic names of France — ^names 
of distinguished generals, and statesmen, and poets, and historians — ^names 
such as Vendome, Ney, Racine, Defoe, La Fontaine, Dupin, Blois, Le Beau, 
Auvache, Fontaineau, and Montier. In addition to theu' surnames and theu* 
traditions, the only relic which these exiles retain of their former prosperity 
and gentle nurture is a traditional love of bu'ds and flowers. Few rooms, 
however wretched, are destitute either of a sickly plant, struggling, like its 
sickly owner, for bare life, or a caged bird warbling the songs of heaven to 
the poor imprisoned weaver as he plies his weary labor." 



33G DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES, 

a kind of homage wHch. he paid to the faith of his ancestors, 
and it was a means of rendering the French language famil- 
iar to us ; but nothing was ever worse calculated to inspire 
the mind of a child with respect for religion than such a Mnd 
of religious worship. Most of the descendants of the refu- 
gees were born and bred in England, and desired nothing less 
than to preserve the memory of their origin, and the chapels 
were therefore ill-attended. A large uncouth room, the ave- 
nues to which were crowded courts and dirty alleys, and 
which, when you entered it, presented to the view only irreg- 
ular unpainted pews, and dusty, unplastered walls ; a congre- 
gation consisting principally of some strange -looking old 
women, scattered here and there, two or three in a pew ; and 
a clergyman reading the service and preaching in a monoto- 
nous tone of voice, and in a language not familiar to me, was 
not hkely either to impress my mind with much religious 
awe, or to attract my attention to the doctrines which were 
delivered. In truth, I did not once attempt to attend to 
them; my mind was wandering to other subjects, and dis- 
porting itself in much gayer scenes than those before me, and 
little of religion was mixed in my reveries."* 

Yery few of the refugees returned to France. They long 
continued to sigh after the land of their fathers, hoping that 
the religious persecutions abroad would abate, so that they 
might return to live and die there. But the persecutions did 
not abate. They flared up again from time to time with in- 
creased fury, even after religion had become almost prostrate 
throughout France. Protestantism, though proscribed, was 
not, however, dead ; and meetings of the Huguenots contin- 
ued to be held in " the Desert" — by night, in caves, in the 
woods, among the hills, by the sea-shore, where a body of 
faithful pastors ministered to them at the hourly peril of 
their lives. The " Church in the Desert" was even regularly 
organized, had its stated elders, deacons, and ministers, and 
appointed circuit meetings. Very rarely were their secrets 

* Lnfe of Sir Samuel Romilly^i.^ 15> 



THE LAST OF THE PERSECUTIONS. 337 

"betrayed, yet they could not always escape the vigilance of 
the Jesuits, who continued to track them with the aid of the 
soldiery and police, and succeeded in sending fresh victims 
to the galleys so long as they retained their power in France. 

Down even to the middle of last century the persecution 
of the Protestants continued unabated. Thus, at GrenoMe, 
in the years 1745 and lY46,more than three hundred persons 
were condemned to death, the galleys, or perpetual imprison- 
ment because of their religion. • Twenty-nine nobles were 
condemned to be deprived of then* nobility ; fourteen per- 
sons were banished ; four were condemned to be flogged by 
the common hangman; six women were sentenced to have 
their heads shaved by the same ftmctionary, and be impris- 
oned, some for different periods, others for life ; two men were 
condemned to be placed in the pillory ; thirty-four were sent 
to the galleys for from three to five years, six for ten years, 
and a hundred and sixteen, among whom were forty-six gen- 
tlemen and two chevaliers of the order of Saint Louis, were 
sent to the galleys for life ; and four were sentenced to death.* 
The only crime of which these persons had been guilty was 
that they had been detected attending Protestant worship 
contrary to law. 

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1750, which gave a brief 
repose to Europe, brought no peace to the Huguenots. There 
was even an increase in the persecutions for a time, for there 
was a large body of soldiery set at liberty, who became em- 
ployed in hunting down the Protestants at their meetings in 
"the Desert." Between the years 1750 and 1762 fifty-eight 
persons were condemned to the galleys, many of them for life. 
In the latter year, more than six hundred fugitives fled across 
the frontier into Switzerland, and passed down the Rhine, 
through Holland and England, into Ireland, where they set- 
tled. It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance that, ac- 
cording to M. Coquerel, one of the last women imprisoned for 
her religion was condemned by an Irish Roman Catholic, then 
* Antoine Court — M^moires Historiques, p. 94 et seq. 
Y 



338 DESCENDANTS OF TEE REFUGEES. 

in the service of France: "Marguerite Ro'bert, wife of Joseph 
Vincent, of Valeirarques, in the diocese ofIJzes,was arrested 
in her house because of having been married by a Protestant 
pastor, and condemned in 1759 hj Monseigneur de Thomond 
. . . ce Xord Irlandoisy* 

The punishment of the galleys was also drawing to an end. 
The mutterings of the coming revolution were already begin- 
ning to be heard. The long uncontrolled rule of the Jesuits 
had paved the way for Voltaire and Rousseau, whose influence 
was beginning to penetrate French society. In 1*764 the 
Jesuits were suppressed by Parliament, and the persecutions 
in a great measure ceased. In 1769, Alexander Chambon, of 
Praules, in the Viverais, the last galley-slave for the faith, 
was discharged from the convict-prison at Toulon through 
the intervention of the Prince of Beauveau. Chambon was 
then eighty years old, and had passed twenty-seven years at 
the galleys, to which he had been condemned for attending a 
religious meeting. 

The last apprehension of a Protestant minister was that of 
M, Broca, of La Bri^, as late as the year 1773 ; but the spirit 
of persecution had so much abated that he was only warned 
and required to change his residence. It began to be felt 
that while materialism and atheism were being openly taught 
even by priests and dignitaries of the French Church — ^by the 
Abbe de Prades and others — the persecution of the Protest- 
ants could no longer be consistently enforced, and they ac- 
cordingly thenceforward enjoyed a degree of liberty in the 
exercise of then* worship such as they had not experienced 
since the death of Mazarin. 

But this liberty came too late to be of any use to the ex- 
iled Huguenots and their descendants settled in England, 
who had long since given up all hope of returning to the land 
of their fathers. The revolutionary period shortly followed, 
after which came the wars of the Republic, and the revival of 
the old feud between France and England. Many of the de- 
* Charles Coquerel — Histmre des Eglesis du Desert^ ii., p. 428. 



THE HUGUENOTS BECOME BRITISH. 330 

scendants of the exiles, no longer desiring to remember tlieii* 
origin, adopted English, names, and ceased to be French. 
Since that time the fusion of the exiles with the English peo- 
ple has become complete, even in Spitalfields. There are 
still whole quarters of streets there in which the glazed gar- 
rets indicate the dwellings of the former silk-weavers, but 
most of them are unoccupied. There are still some of their 
old mulberry-trees to be seen in the gardens near Spital 
Square. Many pure French names may still be observed over 
the shop-doors in that quarter of London, and several descend- 
ants of the French manufactm*ers still continue to carry on 
the business of silk-weaving there. Even the pot-au-feu is 
still known in Spitalfields, though the poor people who use it 
know not of its origin. And although there are many de- 
scendants of the French operatives still resident in the east 
of London, probably by far the largest proportion of them 
have long since migrated to the more prosperous manufac- 
turing districts of the North. 

Throughout the country there was the same effacement of 
the traces of foreign origin among the descendants of the ex- 
iles. Every where they gradually ceased to be French.* 
The foreign manners, customs, and language probably held 
out the longest at Portarlington, in Lreland, where the old 
French of Louis Quatorze long continued to be spoken in so- 
ciety, while the old French service was read in church down 
to the year 181 7, when it was finally supplanted by the En- 
glish. 

Thus the reftigees of all classes at length ceased to exist as 
a distinctive body among the people who had given them a 
refuge, and they were eventually absorbed into and became 
an integral part of the British nation. 

* The French mercantile houses in England and Ireland, who did business 
in London, long continued to have their special London bankers, among whom 
may be mentioned those of Bosanquet, Puget, etc. The house of Puget and 
Co., in St. Paul's Churchyard, recently wound up, kept all their books in 
French down to the beginning of the present centmy. 



CHAPTER XYin. 

CON-CLirSION. — THE FEENCH BEYOLTJTION. 

While sucli were the results of the settlement of the Prot- 
estant refugees in England, let us briefly glance at the effect 
of their banishment on the countries which drove them forth. 

The persecutions in Flanders and France doubtless suc- 
ceeded after a sort. Philip 11. crushed Protestantism in 
Flanders as he did in Spain, to the temporary ruin of the 
one country and the debasement of the other. Flanders 
eventually became lost to the Spanish crown, though it has 
since entered upon a new and prosperous career under the 
constitutional government of Belgium ; but Spain sank until 
she reached the very lowest rank among the nations of 
Europe. The Inquisition flourished, but the life of the na- 
tion decayed. Spain lost her commerce, her colonies, her 
credit, her intellect, her character. She became a country 
of emeutes, revolutions, pronunciamentos, repudiations, and 
intrigues. We have only to look at Spain now. If it be 
true that in the long run the collective character of a nation 
is fairly represented by its government and its rulers, the 
character of Spain must have fallen very low indeed. 

And how fared it with France after the banishment of her 
Huguenots ? So far as regarded the suppression of Protest- 
antism, Louis XIV. may also be said to have succeeded. For 
more than a century, that form of religion visibly ceased to 
exist in France. The Protestants had neither rights nor 
privileges, and not even a vestige of liberty, for they were 
placed entirely beyond the pale of the law. Such of them 
as would not be dragooned into conformity to the Roman 
Catholic religion were cast into prison or sent to the galleys. 
If the Protestants were not stamped wholly out of existence. 



DISAPPEARANCE OF GREAT MEN. 341 

at least they were stamped out of sight ; and if they contin- 
ued to worship, it was in secret only — in caves, among the 
hills, or in " the Desert." Indeed, no measure of suppression 
could have heen more complete. But now see with what 
results. 

One thing especially strikes the intelligent reader of French 
history subsequent to the Act of Revocation, and that is the 
almost total disappearance of great men in France. After 
that date we become conscious of a dull, dead level of sub- 
serviency and conformity to the despotic will of the king.* 
Louis trampled under foot individuality, strength, and gen- 
ius, and there remained only mediocrity, feebleness, and 
■flunkyism. This feature of the time has been noted by 
writers so various as De FeUce, Merivale, Michelet, and 
Buckle, the last of whom goes so far as to say that Louis 
XIV. "survived the entire intellect of the French nation, "f 

The Protestant universities of Saumur, Montauban, Nis- 
mes, and Sedan were suppressed, and the professors in them 
departed into other lands. All Protestant schools were 
closed, and the whole educational organization of the nation 
was placed in the hands of the Jesuits. War was declared 
against the books forbidden by the Church of Rome. Dom- 

* In the reign of Louis XIV. a sonnet was privately circulated, from which 
the foUoAving is an extract : 

" Ce peuple que jadis Dieu gouvemait lui-meme 
Trop las de son bonheur, voulait avoir un Roi, 
He bien, dit le Seigneur, peuple ingrat et sans foi, 
Tu seutiras bieutot le poids du diademe. 

Ainsi rfigne anjourd'hui par les voeux de la France 
Ce Monarque absolu qu'on nomme Dieu-donn6." 

t M. Puaux, referring to the measures so servilely passed by the IFrench 
Parliament legalizing and aggrandizing the illegitimate offspring of Louis 
XIY., and declaring them princes of the blood capable of succeeding to the 
throne, goes on to say: "At sight of these pouncilors of the red robe, who 
trembled before the old Sultan of Versailles in sanctioning the glaring scan- 
dals of his life, one is justified in asking whether Frenchmen continued to re- 
tain the courage displayed by them on so many a field of battle, and whether 
the cruel saying of Paid-Louis Courier be not true : ' Frenchmen, you are the 
most flunkyish of all peoples!' (Fran^ais, vous etes le plus valet de tons le 
peuples. ) We blush as we write the lines, at the same time avowing our be- 
lief, which we do with pride, that the Great King would never have obtained 
from a Huguenot court what was so servilely granted him by a Catholic one." 
— Puaux — Histoire de h Reformation Frangaise^ torn, vii., p. 64. 



342 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 

iciliaiy visits were paid by the district commanders to ev- 
ery person suspected of possessing them ; and all devotional 
books of sermons and hymns, as well as Bibles and Testa- 
ments, that conld be found, were ruthlessly burned.* 

There was an end for a time of political and religious lib- 
erty in France. Freedom of thought and freedom of worship 
were alike crushed ; and then the new epoch began — of men- 
tal stagnation, political depravity, religious hypocrisy, and 
moral decay. With the great men of the first half of Louis 
Xiy.'s reign, the intellectual greatness of France disappear- 
ed for nearly a century. The Act of Revocation of 1685 cut 
the history of his reign in two : every thing before, nothing 
after. There was no great statesman after Colbert. At his 
death in 1683, the policy which he had so laboriously and so 
grandly initiated was summarily overthrown. The military 
and naval genius of France seemed alike paralyzed. The 
great victories of Conde and Turenne on land, and of Du- 
quesne at sea, preceded the Revocation. After that, Louis's 
army was employed for years in hunting and dragonnading 
the Huguenots, which completely demoralized them, so that 
his next campaign, that of 1688, began in disaster and ended 
in disgrace. 

* Louis XV., who succeeded to Louis XIY., pursued the same policy of 
book-burning. On the 25th of April, 1727, he issued an edict ordering all 
"new converts" [i. e., Protestants who had been compelled to conform, or 
pretended to conform, to Popery] to deliver up all books relating to religion 
within fifteen days, for the pm*pose of being bm-nt in presence of the com- 
mandants of the respective disti-icts. Those who did not so deliver up theii* 
books were heavily fined ; and if found guilty a second time of withholding 
theu' books, they were to be sentenced to three years' hanishnent and a fine 
amounting to not less than one third the value of their entire property. This 
measure completed the destruction of the Protestant librai-ies. The dragoons 
were the Omars of the time, and ruthlessly carried out the royal edict for 
the destruction of Protestant literature. In most of the towns and villages 
throughout Prance great bonfires were lit, into which were cast thousands of 
volumes, including Bibles and Testaments. Hence the great rarity of some 
of the earlier editions of the Scriptures, which are now only to be met vnth 
out of France. Tlie most considerable auto-da-f^ of this land took place at 
Beaucaire, where many thousand volumes of rare and valuable books were 
consumed on a great pile lit in front of the Hotel de Ville, in the presence of 
the municipal authorities, and of M. de Beaulieu, sub-delegate of the intend- 
ant of Languedoc. 



NATIONAL PARALYSIS. 348 



The same barrenness fell upon literature. Moliere, the 
greatest of French comedians, died of melancholy in 16'74. 
Kacine, the greatest of French poets and dramatists, died in 
1697, but his genius may be said to have culminated with 
the production oi Phcedre in 1676. Corneille died in 1684, 
but his last, though not his greatest work, Surena^ was pro- 
duced in 1674. La Fontaine published his last fables in 
1679. 

With Pascal, a man as remarkable for his piety as for his 
genius, expii-ed in 1662 the last free utterance of the Roman 
Catholic Church in France. He died protesting to the last 
against the immorality and despotism of the principle? of the 
Jesuits. It is true, after the Revocation there remained of 
the great French clergy Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Fenelon. 
They were, however, the products of the first half of Louis's 
reign, and they were the last of their race ; for we shall find 
that the effect of the king's policy was to strike with paraly- 
sis the very Church which he sought exclusively to establish 
and maintain. 

After this period we seem to tread a dreary waste in 
French history. True loyalty became extinguished, and even 
patriotism seemed to have expired. Literature, science, and 
the arts almost died out, and there remained a silence almost 
as of the grave, broken only by the noise of the reveli'ies at 
court, amid which there rose up from time to time the omi- 
nous wailiugs of the gaunt and famishing multitude. 

The policy of Louis XIY. had succeeded, and France was 
at length " converted." Protestantism had been crushed, and 
the Jesuits were triumphant. Their power over the bodies 
and souls of the people was as absolute as liaw could make 
it. The whole education of the country was placed in their 
hands, and what the character of the next generation was to 
be depended in a great measure upon them. ISTot only the 
churches and the schools, but even the national prisons, were 
controlled by them. They were the confessors of the bas- 
tiles, of which there were twenty in France, where persons 



34A THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

could be incarcerated for life on the authority merely of let- 
tres de cachet , which were given away or sold.* Besides the 
hastiles and the galleys,f over which the Jesuits presided, 
there were also the state prisons, of which Paris alone con- 
tained about thirty, besides convents, where persons might 
be immured without any sentence. " Surely never," says 
Michelet, "had man's dearest treasure, liberty, been more 
lavishly squandered." 

The Church in France had grown immensely rich by the 
property of the Protestants which was transferred to it, as 
wgll as by royal grants and private benefactions. So far as 
money went, it had the means and the power of doing all 
that it would in moulding the mind and conscience of the 
French nation. The clergy held in their hands one fifth of 
the whole landed property of the country, estimated to be 
worth about £160,000,000 ; and attached to these lands were 
the serfs, whom they continued to hold as such until the Rev- 
olution.J 

And now let us see what was the outcome of the action of 
this Church, so rich and so powerful, after enjoying a centu- 
ry of undisputed authority in France. All other faiths had 
been expelled to make way for it ; Protestantism had been 
exterminated, and free thought of all kinds had shrunk for a 
time out of sight. 

What was the result of this exclusive action upon the 
mind and conscience of the French people ? The result was 

* Saint Florentin alone gave away no fewer tlian 50,000. Many of the 
persons immured in these horrible places were forgotten, or, if they succeeded 
in obtaining their release, they sometimes issued from their dungeons with 
their ears and noses gnawed away by rats. 

t In the reign of Louis XV., "The Well-Beloved," the galleys still con- 
tained many Protestants, besides persons who had been detected aiding Prot- 
estants to escape. They were regarded as veritable slaves, and were occa- 
sionally sold, the price of a galley-slave in the Well-Beloved's reign beiog 
about £120. Voltaire was presented with a galley-slave by M. de Choiseul. 

t The clergy still possessed serfs in the time of the Revolution. The 
whole of the eighteenth century had passed away, together with all the liber- 
ators, both Eousseau and Voltaire, whose last thought was the enfranchise- 
ment of the Jura. Yet the priest had still his serfs. . . . Bondage was 
not expressly abolished till March, 1790. — Michelet — History of the French 
Revolution. 



REIGN OF INFIDELITY. 345 

•utter emptiness : to use tlie words of Carlyle, " emptiness of 
pocket, of stomach, of head, and of heart." The Church which 
had claimed and ohtained the sole control of the religious ed- 
ucation of France saw itself assailed by its own offspring — 
desperate, ignorant, and so ferocious that in some places they 
even seized the priests and indecently scourged them in front 
of their own altars.* 

The nation that would not have the Bayles, and Claudes, 
and Saurins of a century before, now cast themselves at the 
feet of the Yoltaires, Rousseaus, and Biderots. Though 
France would not have the God of the Huguenot's Bible, be- 
hold now she accepts the evangel according to Jean Jacques, 
and a poor bedizened creature, clad in tawdry, is led through 
the streets of Paris in the character of the Goddess of 
Reason ! 

But a large number of the clergy of the Roman Catholic 
Church in France had themselves long ceased to believe in 
the truth of what they professed to teach. They had grown 
utterly corrupted and demoralized. Their monasteries were 
the abodes of idleness and self-indulgence. Their pulpits 
were mute : their books were empty. The doctors of the 
Sorbonne still mumbled their accustomed jargon, but it had 
become powerless. Instead of the great churchmen of the 
past — Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Fenelon — ^there were such 
blind leaders of the blind as the Cardinal de Rohan, the 
projligate confederate of Madame la Motte in the affair of 
the diamond necklace; the Abbe Si^yes, the constitution- 
monger ; the Abbe Raynal, the open assailant of Christianity 
in every form; and Father Lomenie, the avowed atheist. f 

* Cahltle — French Revolution, ii., p. 2. 

t At the Eevolution many of the priests openly abjured Christianity, and 
were applauded accordingly. The Bishop of Perigaux presented the woman 
whom he had married to the Convention, saying, "I have taken her from 
among the sans culottes." His speech was hailed with immense applause. 
Gobel, Archbishop of Paris, presented himself at the bar of the Convention, 
with his vicars and many of his curates, and desired to lay at the feet of the 
Assembly their sacerdotal garments. " Citizens," said the president in reply, 
*' you are worthy of the Republic, because you have sacrificed at the altar of 
your country these Gothic bawbles." Gobel and his priests then donned the 



346 THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 

The corrupt, self-condemned institution became a target for 
the wit of Voltaire and the. encyclopaedic philosophy of Did- 
erot. It was next assailed by the clubs of Marat, Danton, and 
Robespierre. Then the unfed, untaught, desperate victims 
of centuries of oppression and misguidance rose up almost as 
one man, and cried "Away with it" — JEcrasez VInfame. The 
churches were attacked and gutted, as those of the Hugue- 
nots had been a century before. The church-bells were cast 
into cannon, the church-plate coined into money ; and at 
length Christianity itself was abolished by the Convention, 
who declared the Supreme People to be the only God ! 

The Roman Catholic clergy, who had so long v^itnessed the 
persecutions of the Huguenots, were now persecuted in their 
turn by their own "flocks. Many of them were guillotined ; 
others, chained together as the Huguenots had been, were sent 
prisoners to Rochelle and the Isle of Aix. As a body of them 
passed through Limoges on their way to the galleys, they 
encountered a procession of asses clothed in priests' dresses, 
a mitred sow marching at their head. Some 400 priests lay 
riding in Aix Roads, where the Huguenot galley-slaves had 
been before them — " ragged, sordid, hungry, wasted to shad- 
ows, eating their unclean rations on deck, circularly, in parties 
of a dozen, with finger and thumb ; beating their scandalous 
clothes between two stones; choked in horrible miasmata, 
under close hatches, seventy of them in a berth through the 
night, so that the aged priest is found lying dead in the morn- 
ing in an attitude of prayer."* 

Such was the real outcome of the Act of Revoca?tion of 
Louis the Great — Sansculottism and the Reign of Terror ! 
There was no longer the massacre and banishment of Hugue- 
nots, but there was the guillotining and banishment of the 

bonnet rouge, in token of fraternization with the "Friends of Men." Num- 
bers of priests came daily and gave up to. the Convention their letters of 
priesthood. Puaux says, "Those of their predecessors who distinguished 
themselves in the crusades against the Huguenots had slipped their foot in 
blood; but these fell lower — theii* foot slipped in mud." 
* Caelyle — French Revolution, ii., 338. 



STARVATION OF THE PEOPLE. 347 

successors of the priests whom Louis had set up. There was 
one other point in which 1793 resembled 1685. The fugitive 
priests fled in precisely the same direction in which the Hu- 
guenot pastors had done ; and again the persecuted for relig- 
ion's sake made for the old free land of England, to join the 
descendants of the Huguenots, driven out of France for alto- 
gether different reasons a century before. 

But the Roman Catholic priests did not fly alone. They 
were accompanied by the nobles, the superintendents of the 
dragonnades. IN'ever, since the flight of Huguenots which 
followed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had there 
been such an emigration of Frenchmen from France. But 
there was this difference between the emigrations of 1685 and 
1793, that.whereas in the former period the people who emi- 
grated consisted almost entii*ely of the industrious classes, in 
the latter period they consisted almost entirely of the idle 
classes. The men who now fled were the nobles and priests, 
who had so misguided and mistaught the people intrusted to 
their charge that in nearly all parts of France they had at 
length risen up in fierce rebellion against them. 

The great body of the people had become reduced to abso- 
lute destitution. They had no possession whatever but their 
misery. They were literally dying of hunger. The 'Bishop 
of Chartres told Louis XY. that in his diocese the men browsed 
like sheep. For want of food, they filled their stomachs with 
grass. The dragoons, who had before been employed to hunt 
down the Huguenots because of their attending religious 
meetings, were now employed on a different duty. They 
were stationed in the market-places where meal was exposed 
for sale to keep back the famishing people. Li Paris alone 
there were 200,000 beggars prowling about, with sallow faces, 
lank hair, and hung in rags. Li 1789, crowds of them were 
seen hovering about the Palais Royal — spectral-looking men 
and starving women, delirious from fasting. Some were said 
not to have eaten for three whole days. The women wan- 
dered about like hungry lionesses, for they had children. 



348 THE FRENCH REVOLVTION. 

One Foulon, a member of the king's council, on "being told of 
the famine endured by the people, said, " Wait till I am min- 
ister : I will make them eat hay ; my horses eat it." The 
words were bitterly avenged. The hungry mob seized Fou- 
lon, hanged him a Id lanterne^ and carried his head about the 
streets, his mouth filled with hay. 

From the provinces news came that the starving helots were 
every where rising, burning down the chateaus of the nobles, 
tearing up their title-deeds, and destroying their crops. On 
these occasions the church-bells were rung by way of tocsin, 
and the population of the parish turned out to the work of 
destruction. Seventy-two chateaus were wrecked and burnt 
in the Ma9onnais and Beaujolais alone ; and the conflagration 
spread throughout Dauphiny, Alsace, and the Lyonnais, the 
very quarters from which the Huguenots had been so fero- 
ciously driven out a century before. 

There was scarcely a district in which the Huguenots had 
pursued their various branches of industry, now wholly sup- 
pressed, in which the starving and infuriated peasantry did 
not work wild havoc, and take revenge upon their lords. 
They had learned but too well the lessons of the sword, the 
dungeon, and the scajQTold, which their rulers had taught them, 
and the Reign of Terror which followed was but the natural 
outcome of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, the wars of 
the dragonnades, the cruelties which followed the Act of Rev- 
ocation, and a long course of like teaching. But the victims 
had now changed places. I^ow it was the nobles who were 
persecuted, burnt out, had their estates confiscated, and were 
compelled to fly for their lives. 

The dragonnades of the Huguenots became repeated in the 
noyades of the Royalists ; and again l^ancy, Lyons, Rouen, 
Bordeaux, Montauban, and numerous other places, witnessed 
a repetition of the cruelties of the preceding century. At 
ITantes, where the famous Edict of Toleration, affcei-ward re- 
voked, was proclaimed, the guillotine was worked until the 
headsman sank exhausted ; and to hasten matters, a general 



REIGN OF TERROR. 349 

fiisillade in the plain of St. Mauve followed, of men, women, 
and children; At Paris, the hideous Marat called for " eight 
hundred gibbets," in convenient rows, to hang the enemies of 
the people. He would be satisfied with nothing short of 
" two hundred thousand aristocratic heads." 

It is unnecessary to pursue the dreadful story farther. 
Suffice it to say that the nobles, like the priests, fled out of 
France to escape the fiiry of the people, and they too made 
for England, where they received the same asylum that had 
been extended to their clergy, and before them to the Hugue- 
nots. To prevent the flight of the noblesse, the same meas- 
ures were adopted by the Convention which Louis XIY. 
adopted to prevent the escape of the Huguenots. The front- 
iers were strictly guarded, and all the roads patroled which 
led out of France. Severe laws were passed against emigra- 
tion, and the estates of fugitive aristocrats were declared to 
be confiscated to the state. l!Tevertheless, many succeeded 
in making their escape into Switzerland, Germany, and En- 
gland. 

It fared still worse with Louis XYL and his beautiful 
queen Marie Antoinette. They were the most illustrious vic- 
tims of the barbarous policy of Louis XIY. That monarch 
had sowed the wind, and they now reaped the whirlwind. 
A mob of starving men and women, the genuine ojffspring of 
the Great King, burst in upon Louis and his consort at Ver- 
sailles, shouting "Bread! bread!" They were very difier- 
ent fi-om the plumed and garlanded courtiers accustomed to 
worship in these gilded saloons, and by no means so obse- 
quious. They insisted on the king and queen accompanying 
them to Paris, virtually their prisoners. The royal family 
tried to escape, as the Huguenots had done before them, 
across the frontier into Germany. But in vain. The king's 
own highway was closed against him, and the fugitives were 
led back to Paris and the guillotine. 

The last act of the unfortunate Louis was his attempt to 
address a few words to his subjects, when the drums were 



350 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

ordered to be beaten, and his voice was drowned by the 
noise. It was remembered that the last occasion on which a 
like scene had occurred in France was on the occasion of the 
execution of the young Huguenot pastor Fulcran Rey at 
Beaucaire. When he opened his mouth publicly to confess 
his faith, the drummers posted round the scaffold were 
ordered to beat, and his dying speech remained unheard. 
The slaughter of the martyred preacher was thus terribly 
avenged. 

We think we are justified in saying that, but for the per- 
secution and expulsion of the Huguenots at the Revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the Revolution of 1789 most 
probably never would have occurred. The Protestants sup- 
plied that enterprising and industrious middle class which 
gives stability to every state. They provided remunerative 
employment for the population, while at the same time 
they enriched the kingdom by their enterprise and industry. 
Moreover, they furnished that virtuous and religious element 
in society without which a nation is but so much chaff that 
is driven before the wind. WTien they were suppressed or 
banished, there was an end to their industrial undertakings. 
The farther growth of a prosperous middle class was prevent- 
ed ; and the misgovernment of the ruling class being un- 
checked, the great body of the working order were left to 
idleness, nakedness, and famine. Faith in God and in good 
died out; religion, as represented by the degenerate priest- 
hood, fell into contempt, and the reign of materialism and 
atheism began. Frightful distress at length culminated in 
revolution and anarchy ; and there being no element of sta- 
bility in the state — no class possessing moral weight to stand 
between the infuriated people at the one end of the social 
scale, and the king and nobles at the other — tbe imposture 
erected by the Great Louis was assailed on all sides, and 
king, Church, and nobility were at once swept away. 

As regards the emigration of the Huguenots in 1685, and 
of the nobles and clergy in lYBO, it must be acknowledged 



THE TWO EMIGRATIONS. 351 

that the former was by much the most calamitous to France. 
"Was the one' emigration greater than the other?" says 
Michelet. "I do not know. That of 1685 was probably 
from three to four hundred thousand persons. However this 
may be, there was this great difference : France, at the emi- 
gration of '89, lost its idlers ; at the other its workers. The 
terror of '89 struck the individual, and each feared for his 
life. The terror of the dragonnades struck at heart and con- 
science ; then men feared for their all." 

The one emigration consisted for the most part of nobles 
and clergy, who left no traces of their settlement in the coun- 
tries which gave them asylum; the other emigration com- 
prised all the constituent elements of a people — skilled work- 
men in all branches, manufacturers, merchants, and profes- 
sional men ; and wherever they settled they founded numer- 
ous useful establishments which were a source of prosperity 
and wealth. 

Assuredly England has no reason to regret the asylum 
which she has in all times so freely granted to fugitives fly- 
ing from religious persecution abroad; least of all has she 
reason to regret the settlement within her borders of so 
large a number of industrious, intelligent, and high-minded 
Frenchmen, who have made this country their home since the 
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and thereby not only stim- 
ulated, and in a measure created, British industry, but also in- 
fluenced, in a remarkable degree, our political and religious 
history. 



APPENDIX. 



I. EARLY SETTLEMENT OF FOREIGN ARTISANS IN 
ENGLAND. 

The first extensive immigration of foreign artisans of which we have any 
account took place in the reign of Heniy II. It was occasioned by an inun- 
dation in the Low Countries which dispossessed many of the inhabitants, when 
large numbers of them came over into England. They were well received by 
the king, who forwarded a body of them to Carlisle, for the purpose of plant- 
ing them on the then unsettled and almost desert lands adjacent to the Scotch 
border. But the lawless state of the district was fatal to the quiet pursuits 
of the Flemings, and Hemy subsequently directed then- removal to the penin- 
sula of Gower, in South Wales. There the Flemings began and successfully 
carried on theh trade of cloth-weaving. They foi-med a community by them- 
selves, and jealously preserved then- nationality. The district long continued 
to be known as "Little England beyond Wales ;" and to this day the com- 
munity of Gower is to a great extent distinct and separate from that of the 
smTOunding coxmtry. 

Another colony of Flemings settled about the same time at Worsted, near 
Noi-wich, and " worsted" stuffs soon became common. These colonists, were 
the first to introduce into England water-driven corn-mills, wind-mills, and 
fulling-mills. They also reintroduced the art of building in brick, which had 
not been practiced in England since the time of the Romans. Traces of their 
early brick-work are still observable in several of the old churches at Norwich 
and Worsted — Worsted chm-ch furaishing an unmistakable specimen of early 
Flemish architecture. C)ther colonies of Flemish fishermen settled at Brigh- 
ton, Newhaven, and other places along the south coast, where then- lineage is 
still traceable in local words, names, and places.* 

Other Flemings established themselves still farther north. f At Berwick- 
upon-Tweed they occupied a large factory called the Red Hall, situated in the 

* "Strombolo" or " stromb alien" (stream-balls) is the pure Flemish name given 
here to pieces of black bitumen, charged with sulpbur andrsalt, found along the coast. 
It is one of the many indications of an early Flemish colony of fishers.— Mueeay's 
Sussex. 

t A writer in the Edinlmrg Review (July, 18G3) says, "During the twelfth and thir- 
teenth, centuries Flemish colonies have been traced in Berwick, St. Andrew's, Perth, 
Dumbarton, Ayr, Peebles, Lanark, Edinburg, and in the districts of Renfrewshire, 
Clydesdale, and Annandale. These strangers lived under the protection of a special 
code of mercantDe law; and recent investigations have established the fact that, a 
hundred years before the great Baltic Association came into being, we had a Hanse- 
atic League in Scotland, small and unimportant comparatively, but known by that 
very name. This was in the time of David I., toward the middle of the twelfth cen- 
tury." 

z 



354 EARLY FOREIGN ARTISANS. 

main street of th^ tOT\T2. The principal business carried on bj them there was 
the export of wool, wool-fells, and hides, and the import of iron, weapons, im- 
plements, and merchandise of vaiious kinds. These Memish traders were 
under the special protection of the Scotch king, to whom they rendered loyal 
sen-ice in retm-n ; for history relates that on the stonning of Benvick by Ed- 
ward I., in 1290, the Flemings barricaded themselves in the Red Plall, and 
defended themselves with such courage and obstinacy that, rather than sm- 
render, they were buried to a man in the ruins. 

A new impulse was given to the immigration of Flemish artisans into En- 
gland by the protracted intestine feuds arising out of the dynastic quan-els of 
the Burgundian princes, which unsettled industiy and kept the Low Countries 
in a state of constant turmoil. But perhaps a still more potent cause of Flem- 
ish emigration was the severity of the regulations enforced by tlie guilds or 
trades unions of Flanders, Ghent, Bruges, Liege, and the other great towns, 
which became so many centres of commercial monopoly. The rich guilds 
combmed to crush the poorer ones, and the privileged to root out the unpriv- 
ileged. Such artisans as would not submit to their exactions were liable to 
have their looms broken and their dwellings gutted, and to be themselves ex- 
pelled with their families beyond the walls. If they took shelter in the neigh- 
boring villages, and began to exercise their calling there, they were occasion- 
ally piirsued by the armed men of the guilds, Avho burned down the places 
which had given them refuge, and drove them forth into the Avide world with 
no other possession than their misery.* 

These persecuted ai'tisans, who had earned their living for the most part 
by working up English wool into Flemish cloth, naturally turned their eyes 
in the direction of England, and all who could find the means of emigrating 
made haste to fly, and place the sea between them and the tyranny of the 
trades unions. 

Although the eai*ly English kings had been accustomed to encourage the 
immigi'ation of foreign artisans, it was not imtil the reign of Edward 111. , 
usually styled "the father of EngUsh comutnerce," that any decided progress 
Avas made by this countiy in manufactm-ing industr}^ That sagacious mon- 
arch held tliat, as regarded the necessaries of life, clothing as Avell as food, the 
people of his kingdom should be as much as possible independent of foreign 
supply. In the early part of his reign the English people relied mainly upon 
the Flemish manufacturers for the better sorts of clothing, wliile the English 
wool-growers looked to the Flemish wool-markets as the chief outlet for their 
produce. So long as peaceful relations existed between the two countries, the 
exchange of the raw produce for the manufactured articles went on, to the 
benefit of both. But when these were inteiTupted by civic broils in Flanders, 
by feuds among the guilds, or by war between the two countries, serious in- 
conveniences Avere immediately felt. The English producer lost a market for 
his staple at the same time that the Enghsh consumer was deprived of the 
supply of clothing on which he had been accustomed to rely. 

The question naturally occuired to the English king, Wliy not estabh'sh 
markets for the staple at home, and work up the avooI into cloth by the hands 

* See Ai.TjniYER'B curious pamplilet illustrative of this subject, entitled yoticcs His- 
toriques sur la Ville de PoperingJien, Gheut, 1S40. 



THE FLEMISH CLOTH -WEAVERS. 355 

of om* own people ? This appeared to him both reasonable and desirable ; and 
to accomplish both objects, Edward proceeded to irndte Flemish artisans to 
come over in increased numbers and settle in England, -with the ^'iew of teach- 
ing the EngHsh work-people the arts of spinning, dyeing, and weaving the 
best kinds of cloth. He accordingly sent abroad agents to induce them to 
come over to this countiy, promising them protection, and holding out liberal 
offers to such as should embrace his invitation. 

ruUer, in his Church History, gives the following cm-ious account of the 
means resorted to by Edward: " Englishmen," he says, "at this time knew 
no more what to do with the wool than the sheep that wear it, as to any arti- 
ficial and cm-ious drapery, their best cloths being no better than friezes, such 
was their coarseness from want of skill in the making. Unsuspected emis- 
saries were employed by our king in those countries, w^ho wrought themselves 
into familiarity mth such Dutchmen as were absolute masters of their trade, 
but not masters of themselves, as joumej'men and apprentices. They be- 
moaned the slavishness of these poor servants, whom their masters used rath- 
er like heathens than Christians ; yea, rather like horses than men ; early up, 
and late in bed, and all day hard work, and hai'der fare, as a few henings and 
mouldy cheese, and all to enrich the churls their masters, with profit to them- 
selves. But oh ! how happy shoidd they be if they would but come into En- 
gland, bringing their mystery with them, winch would provide them welcome 
in all places. Here they should feed on fat beef and mutton till nothing but 
their fullness should stint their stomachs. Yea, they should feed on the la- 
bors of their o-wn hands, enjoymg a proportionable profit of then- gains to 
tliemselves ; then- beds should be good, and their bedfellows better, seeing 
the richest yeomen in England would not disdain to marry their daughters 
unto them, and such the EngUsh beauties that the most envious foreigner 
could not but commend them." 

The representations made by Edward's agents were not without their effect 
in inducing many of the distressed Flemings to come over and settle in vari- 
ous parts of England. But another circumstance materially contributed to 
hasten the exodus of the foreign artisans. This was the sudden outbreak of 
wai' between England and France in 1336. Phihp de Valois, the French 
king, artfully stu-red up Louis de Nevers, Count of Flanders, to strike a blow 
against England in his behalf ; and an order was issued by him for the aiTest 
of all the English then in the Low Countries. The order was executed ; but 
it was speedily felt that the blow had been stmck at Flanders rather than at 
England. 

Edward, on his part, was not slow to retaliate. He prohibited the export 
of English wool as well as the import of Flemish cloth. The Flemings thus 
found themselves at the same moment deprived of their indispensable supply 
of raw material, and shut out fi'om one of the principal markets for the sale 
of their goods. At the same time Edward took the opportunity of reiterat- 
ing, which he did with increased effect, his invitation to the Flemish artisans 
to come over to England, where they would be amply supplied -with wool, and 
prorided with ready markets for all the cloth they could manufacture. He 
granted a charter for the express purpose of protecting such foreign merchants 
and artisans as might settle in England, guaranteeing them secm-ity in the 



EARLY FOREIGN ARTISANS. 



pursuit of theii* industiy, freedom to trade A\dtMn the realm, exemption from 
certain duties, good and prompt justice, good weight, and good measure.* 
These measm-es proved successful in a remarkable degree. Large mimbers 
of Plemmgs forthwith migrated into England, bringing with them their tools, 
their skiU, and their industry. The French king tried, when too late, to stop 
the emigration, but he found it impossible to stop the flight of the artisans 
thi-ough the ports of Flanders into the dominions of his enemy. 

The great migrations of Flemings into England in the reign of Edward 
III. may be said, in some measure, to have laid the foundations of Enghsh 
manufacturing industry. The Dutch statesman De Witt, referring to it as 
matter of histoiy, observed that before the removal of the cloth-trade to En- 
gland the Netherlanders could deal weU enough with the English, "they be- 
ing only shepherds and wool-merchants, "f Michelet also, re\iewing the same 
events, says, "Before England was the gi-eat manufactoiy of u-onwai-e and 
woolens for the world, she was a manufactoiy of wool and meat. From time 

immemorial her people had been a cattle-breeding, sheep-rearing race 

I take it that the English character has been seriously modified by these emi- 
gi-ations, which went on during the whole of the fourteenth century. Preri- 
ously we find no indications of that patient industiy which now distinguishes 
the English. By endeavoring to sepai-ate Flanders and England, the French 
king only stimulated Flemish emigi-ation, and laid the foundation of England's 
manufactures. "$ 

The Flemish cloth-workers, as they came over, had special districts assign- 
ed to them, with special liberties and privileges. They were planted all over 
England — in London, in Kent, in Somerset, in Norfolk, in Nottinghamshire, 
in Yorksliire, in Lancashire, and as far north as Kendal in "Westmoreland. 

Seventy Walloon families from Brabant were settled in the ward of Caudle- 
wick, London, and two meeting-iilaces were assigned to them — one in Lau- 
rence Pountney church-yard, the other m the chm*ch-yard of St. Mary, Som- 
erset. Stow says they were Aveavers of di*apeiy, taj)eiy, and napery — in other 
words, of woolen and hnen stuflfs. Guilds were established in coimection 
with the new branches of trade ; and, with a view to their encom-agement, the 
Idng himself joined them as a guild brother. 

The name of the leader of one of the earliest bands of Flemish emigrants 
has been handed down to us— that of John Kempe, a Flemish woolen-weaver, 
to whom royal letters of protection were granted in 1330, to exercise liis ai-t, 
and " to teach it to such of our people as shall be inclined to leiu-n it." The 
hke protection was extended to his men, servants, and apprentices, and to all 
his goods and chattels whatsoever. Kempe eventually settled at Kendal, and 
there began the manufacture of cloths, which continues to this day, the de- 
scendants of Kempe being still traceable in Kendal and the neighborhood. § 

Six years after Kempe came over, Edward granted similar protection to 

two Brabant weavers, who settled at York, and carried on their trade there. 

They are described in the royal letter as "WiUielmus de Brabant et Han- 

cheinus de Brabant, textores," after the latter of whom the hanh or skein of 

worsted is said to have been called. 

* Rymek— J^cPffera, ii., 747. t De 'Wiri—Tlie True Interest o/Hollafid. 

t 'M.iou'Ei.-ET— History of France^ book vi., ch. i. 
§ T^ionoTuBON— Annals of Kendal, 2d edition, p. 235. 



THE BROTHERS BLANKET. 357 

The woolen-cloth trade seems eai-ly to have become established at Notting- 
ham, and gave rise in the to-v\Ti and county to many considerable families, 
some of whose names indicate a Flemish origin. Thus there were the Bugges 
and Willoughbys, joint ancestors of the hoase of WiUoughhy (Lord Middle- 
ton), at AYollaton, neai* Nottingham ; the Mappm-leys, Thm-lands, Amyases, 
Plmnti-es, Tamesleys, Binghams, and Hunts.* 

Other Flemings planted themselves in the west of England, and in course 
of time their fulling-mills were busily at work along the streams of Wiltshu'e, 
Somerset, and South Gloucester, where the manufactm*e of cloth still continues 
to flomish.t Bath and Bristol also shared in the prosperity which followed 
the introduction of this new branch of trade. At the latter place, three 
brothers of the name of Blanket, taking advantage of the immigration of the 
foreign artisans, set up looms in their houses for the wearing of cloth. The 
magistrates, on hearing of their proceedings, tried to stop them by heavy 
fines, on which the brothers Blanket appealed to the king. Edward imme- 
diately wa-ote to the corporation that, " considering the manu&ctures may 
turn out to the great advantage of us and all the people of our kingdom, 
you are to permit the machines to be erected in their [the Flemings'] houses, 
mthout making on that account any reproach, hinderance, or imdue exac- 
tion." This royal order had tlie eifect of checking the oppressive interference 
of the corporation. The brothers Blanket were accordingly enabled to pro- 
ceed with their operations, and blankets:]: soon became an important branch 
of Bristol manufacture. 

Before the time of Edward III. the common people had been accustomed 
to wear coarse clothes made of hemp, but on the inti-oduction of blankets 
they came into general use for purposes of clothing. The blankets were also 
used' by travelers, soldiers, and sportsmen, instead of the loose mantle and 
puckered cloak and cape, wdiich, vnxh the long loose robe or gown, had been 
found veiy inconvenient. Wlien bedsteads were introduced in the same reign 
— ^before which time people slept on rushes, straw, or fern, laid on the floor — 
blankets were introduced as part of the necessary bed-fm-nitm-e ; and repeat- 
ed mention of them is made in the "Expenses of the Great Wardi-obe of Ed- 
ward m., 1 347-9. "§ A considerable demand being thus created for the new 
article, the brothers Blanket soon became rich men, and rose to honor and 
dignity. Thomas, the youngest brother, to whom the merit of introducing 
the manufactm-e was chiefly due, served as high bailiff" of Bristol in 134U, and 

* Mr. Pelkin, of Nottingham, informs us that the woolen-cloth manufacture flour- 
ished in the town before the time of Kiujj John. That monarch staid in the place 
several times, in a building called King John's Palace, lately taken down. He grant- 
ed a charter to Nottingham, iu which persons within ten miles of it were forbidden 
to work woolen cloth except it was dyed in the borough. 

t At a later date (2()th Henry VII.) Anthony Bonvis, an Italian, introduced the art 
of spinning with the distaff in Devonshire, and began the making of Devonshire ker- 
seys and coxal cloths. Before his time only friezes and plain coarse cloths were 
made in that county. 

t It has been supposed by some that the brothers Blanket gave its distinctive name 
to the now familiar woolen bed-sheet. But, as the article was well-known abroad by 
the same name {hlanclieU-irom the absence of color), it Is more likely that the blank- 
et gave its name to the brothers, than that the article was named after them. It was 
quite usual in those days for men to take the name of the article they manufiictnred 
or the trade they lived by. Wehb cloth and Clutterbucks-were, however, so called after 
the persons who first manufactured them iu the west of England. 

§ Archceologia, vol. xxxi. 



358 EARLY FOREIGN ARTISANS. 

the two other brothers successively represented the city in Parliament — Ed- 
.ward in 1362, and Edmund in 1369. 

The cloth-manufactures of Kent, also, rose into importance by reason of 
the skill and enterprise of the Flemings. They planted their fuUing-mills 
along the rivers Cray and Dart,* the weavers settling principally at Cran- 
brook, Goudhurst, and the neighboring villages. Many of the small free- 
holders of the Weald sent their sons to learn the trade, and they afterwai'd 
set up as manufactm-ers on their own account. At county meetings the 
" Gray-coats of Kent" carried all before them — ^gray cloth being the prevail- 
ing color of the Kentish article, as that of Kendal was gi-een. The cloth- 
trade has, however, long since departed from Cranbrook, then the centre of 
the Kentish trade — its manufactures, like so many others, having migrated 
northwai-d ; and the only indications remaining of the extinct branch of in- 
dustiy ai-e the ancient factories, e\'idently of Flemish origin, which are still 
to be seen in the principal street of the town. 

Norwich and the neighboring towns continued to derive increasing advan- 
tages sfrom the influx of foreign artisans. To the trade of spinning worsted, 
that of manufacturing it into cloth was added in 1336, after which date the 
latter branch became the leading manufactm-e of the city. Norwich was ap- 
pointed by royal edict one of the ten staple towns for the sale of wool, wool- 
feUs, and cloths, to wliich merchants resorted from all parts for purposes of 
business. Enjoying such privileges, Norwch became a centre of busy in- 
dustry, and the adjoining towns of Worstead and Wymondham shared in its 
prosperity, "every one," says an ancient chi-onicler, "having combers, card- 
ers, spinsters, fuUers, dyers, pressers, packers, and fleece-sorters." 

Wliile the Flemish artisans prospered, the English yeomen grew rich with 
them. " Happy the yeoman's house," says Fuller, " into which one of these 
Dutchmen did enter, bringing industry and wealth along \vith him. Such 
who came in strangers witliin the doors soon after went out bridegrooms and 
returned sons-in-law. Yea, those yeomen in whose houses they harbored 
soon proceeded gentlemen, gaining great estates to themselves, anns and 
worship to their families, "t 

Edwai-d continued indefatigable in his eflbrts to promote the establishment 
and extension of the new branches of industry. Some of the measures which 
he adopted with this object, Aaewed by the light of the present day, may seem 
to display more zeal than wisdom. Thus he ordered that none but English- 
made cloth should be worn throughout England, except by himself and cer- 
tain privileged persons of the higher classes. He not only fixed by edict tlie 
prices of cloth, but prescribed the kind to be worn by tradesmen, mechanics, 
and rustics respectively, as well as the quality of the woolen shrouds they 
were to be buried in ! 

To foster the home trade, Ed\vard gave free license to all persons whatso- 
ever to make English cloth, while at the same time he rigidly excluded that 
of foreign manufacture. He also endeavored to prohibit the export of English 
wool ; but it was found difficult to enforce this measure, as it inflicted even 

* Most of the paper-mllla now situated on these streams were originally fiilliug- 
tnills, as is shown by tl^e tiile-deeds of the properties still extant, 
t FcLLEK — Church Hiatorij. 



WOOL-SMUGGLING. 350 

more injuiy on the Englisli wool-grower than it did on the foreign manufac- 
turer. The. annual production of English wool was so large that it was im- 
possible for the Flemish immigi-ants, helped though they were by their En- 
glish journeymen and apprentices, to work it up into cloth. The English 
market accordingly became glutted with wool, at the same time that the Flem- 
ish and French weavers continued to famish for want of raw material from 
England. Nature set up her usual remedy under such circumstances, and es- 
tablished tlie Smuggler. All round the coast the law Avas set at defiance, and 
wool was smreptitiously sent abroad through eveiy port.* As it was found 
impossible to maintain restrictions so rigid and so injui'ious, they were speed- 
ily relaxed. The export of wool was again legalized on payment of a duty 
of 405. the pack, or equalgto about £G of our present money, and the extent 
of the trade may be infeired from the fact that the impost thus levied pro- 
duced about £250,000 a year. 

At the same time, Flemish cloth was again admitted on payment of duty, 
for it was found that the production of EngUsh cloth was as yet insufficient 
for the home consumption. This latter measure also had the effect of stimu- 
lating the English manufactm-ers to increased industiy and entei-prise, and 
the result was that, before long, cloth of English make was exported in large 
quantities, not only to France, Denmark, t and Gennany, but to Flanders it- 

* The restrictions on the esportatiou of English wool long continued in force, and 
"owling," or wool-smuggling, became the business of a large part of the coast popu- 
lation, especially along the shores of Sussex and Kent. There was always, however, 
a strong patriotic party at home, favorable to the encouragement of English manufac- 
tures by artificial methods, such as the prohibition of the export of "English wool. 
The Lansdowne MSS. (79G f. 2, British Museum) contain a poem of the time of Henrj' 
IV., supposed to have been the composition of a monk, containing many curious ref- 
erences to this early branch of English industry. The writer says : 
" Ther ys noother pope, emperoAvre, nor kyng, 

Bysschop, cardynal, or any man levyng, 

Of what condicion, or what maner degree, 

Durjrng theyre levyng theLmust have thynges iij — 

Mete, drynk, and cloth, to every manne's sustynaunce — 

They leng alle iij, without varyaunce." 
The writer goes on to say that in respect of the iij, England " of all the relmes in 
the worlde berythe the lanteme ;" and he proceeds to show that not only English 
wool, but English clothe, were in demand abroad : 

*' Ffor the marchanntis comme owre wollys for to bye, 

Or elles the cloth that is made thereoff sykyrly, 

Oute of dyverse londes fer be;^ond the see, 

To have thyse merchaundyss into theyr contro." 
Toward the conclusion of the poem, the writer urges the withholding of wool from 
the foreigners as one of the most effectual means of promoting England's prosperity : 
" And ffalle fayne that they may be subject to this lond, 

Yf we kepe the woollys straytly owt of their bond, 

For by the endraperyng thereoff they have theyre sustynaunce, 

And thus owre enmys oe supportyd to our gi'et hynderaunce. 

And therefor, for the love of God in trinyte, 

Conceyve well these mators, and scherysshe the comynalte, 

That theyre pore levyng, synfulle and adversyte. 

May be attratyd into welth, rychess, and prosperyte." 
t In the year 1361 we find Edward III. addressing Magnus, king of Norway, on be- 
half of some English merchants of Norwich, Yarmouth, St. Edmund's Bury, and Col- 
chester, who had sent out a ship bound for Schonen, laden with woolen cloths and 
other merchandise to the value of 2000 merks. The ship was lying in a harbor in 
Norway when a storm came on, and the crew carried the goods on shore for safety, 
upon which thej; were seized by the king's officers. Hence Edward's demand for im- 
mediate restitution of the goods, with damages to the owners, which was promptly 
complied with. 



360 EARLY FOREIGN ARTISANS. 

self. Indeed, the prosperity "of the -woolen-ti-ade was such that the wealth it 
hrought to the nation is said to have materially contributed to the militar}- 
successes of Edward, and helped him to win the battles of Crecy and Poitiers, 
in like manner as the spinuing-jenny of Arkwright and the steam-engine of 
Watt enabled ns in later times successfiilly to contend ^vith the gigantic mili- 
tary power of the first Napoleon. 

Various other branches of industry were about the same time planted in 
England by the Flemish and other foreign artisans. In 1368 Edward III. 
induced three Dutch clock-makers to settle in London to practice their craft : 
John and WiUiam XJniaam, and John Latuyt, of Delft. The kings who suc- 
ceeded Edward pm-sued the same poUcy, and from time to time induced fresh 
bodies of foreign aitisans to settle in England, aiid begin new branches of 
skilled industiy. Thus Richard 11. invited a colony of Flemish linen-weavers 
to London in 1387, and they took up theii* abodes for the most pai*t in Can- 
non Sti-eet, where they long prospered.* He also induced a band of silk- 
weavers from Lucca to settle in the city, and teach his subjects their trade. 
That the art must have made progress is obvious from the fact that in 14G3 
the native silk-weavers turned round upon the foreigners and protested against 
their competition. There were then said to be about a thousand women, in 
nmmeries and private dweUiugs, practicing the ai-t of silk-throwing, and, in a 
petition presented by these silk-women to Parliament, they complain of the 
Lombards and other Italians, who, they say, " import such quantities of 
threads, ribbands, and other silken articles, that they are greatly impoverished 
thereby. " 

The art of metallurgy being a branch of industiy systematically studied 
and practiced in Germany, repeated invitations, accompanied by liberal prom- 
ises of reward, were held out to German miners to settle in England. Thus 
Edward III. inrited a body, of them to instract his subjects in copper-mining, 
under a gi-ant made to certain adventm-ers to work the mines of Shieldam in 
Northumljerland, Alstone Moor in Cumberland, and Hichmond in Yorksliire. 
Heniy VI. pursued the same* policy, and in 1430 we find him inviting three 
famous German miners, named Michael Gosselyn, George Harbryke, and 
Mathew Laweston, with thirty skilled workmen of Bohemia and Hungary, to 
superintend and work the royal tin-mines in Cornwall ; and a few yeai's later 
the same monarch imdted John de Schieldame, a gentleman of Zealand, with 
sixty workmen, to come over and instruct his subjects in the manufacture of 
salt. Edward IV. also sought the aid of Flemish artisans for less peaceful 
purposes, for we find him in 1471 landing a corps of three hundred Flemish 
armorers at Eavenspm'g, in Yorkshire, for the pui-pose of manufacturing hand- 
guns for his ai.'my. 

Again, in the reign of Edward VI., we find a party of German miners, con- 
sisting of laborers, smiths, carpenters, assayers, di'ainers, and coUiers, setting 
out from Frankfort and aniving at Antwerp, where they waited the arrival 
of a consignment of kerseys, the sale ofwliich was to pro\'ide for their convey- 

* In a pamphlet published in 1699, entitled Englanffs Advocate, Europe^s Monitor, 
heing an entreaty m hehalf of the English silk-weavers and silk-thrumstei-s, the 
writer, speaking of the decay of the trade, ohserves: " Sure I am, the case is extremely 
altered with the weavers, since Cannon Street, both sides the way, was nothing but 
weaver's workshops."— P. 3G. 



GERMAN ARTISANS. 361 

ance to England.* Elizabeth also invited skilled miners from Germany to 
settle in England, for the purpose of teaching the people the best methods of 
■working. To two of thc^e, named Hochstetter and Thm-land, of Augsbm-g, 
the queen granted a patent to search for gold, silver, quicksilver, and copper, 
in eight counties, with power to convert the proceeds to their own use. Hoch- 
stetter first established copper-works at Keswick, in Cumberland, which were 
A\;orked to great advantage. Their success was indeed such, that it was said 
of Queen Elizabeth that she left more brass than she had found iron ordnance 
in England. But when the German miners died out, the works fell into de- 
cay, and the mines ceased to be worked. Fuller, the Church historian, wilt- 
ing in 1684, after they had been "laid in," sm'mised that "probably the bury- 
ing of so much steel in the bowels of men during the late ci\al wars hath hin- 
dered the further digging of copper out of the bowels of the earth." The 
same Hochstetter aftei-ward proceeded to open out the silver-mines of Cai'di- 
ganshire, in the township of Skibery Coed, and worked them to considerable 
profit. Letters-patent were also gi-auted to Cornelius de Vos, a Dutchman, 
for working alum-mines ; and to William Humphreys and Christopher Schutz, 
a German from Annaburg, in Saxony, to dig and work all mines besides those 
specified in the other patents. The companies formed under these grants are 
said to have tm-ned out most advantageously both for the crown and the pat- 
entees.! 

The first saw-mills, wu-e-miUs, and paper-mills in England were, in like 
manner, set on foot by Dutch and Germans, then highly skilled in mechanical 
engineering, while the Flemings were more devoted to the various branches 
of the textile manufacture. Thus, in 1565, the Christopher Schutz above 
mentioned started the first wire-dra^ving mill in England. About the same 
time, Joseph Laban, a Dutchman, erected wii-e-works near Tintem Abbey, 
and the descendants of the family ai-e still traceable in the neighborhood. 
Godfrey Box, of Liege, began the same business at Esher, in Surrey, where 
it was afterward continued by two Germans, Mommer and Demetrius. The 
art of needle-making was introduced by another German named Elias Crowse. 
Stow says that before his time a Spanish negi'o made needles in Cheapside, 
but held his art a secret. The Geimans were more open, and taught other 
workmen the trade, thereby establishing a considerable branch of industry. 
"For," says the quaint Fuller, "the needle is woman's pencil, and embroi- 
dery is the masterpiece thereof. Tliis industrious instiniment — needle, quasi 
ne idle, a9«some will have it — maintaineth many milhons ; yea, he who desir- 
eth a blessing on the plough and the needle comprehends most emplojinents, 
at home and abroad, by land and by sea." 

Paper-malcing was another art introduced, like printing, from the Low 
Countries. Caxton brought over from Haarlem, about 1468, a Dutch printer 

* Calendar of State Papera, Foreign Series, 1547-1553. It is not quite clear from the 
State Paper records that this miniajs: party found kickiug their heels on the Antwerp 
(luays ever reached their intended destination. 

t The art of blasting in mines is supposed to have been first practiced in England hy 
Prince Rupert, another German, who was well acquainted with the methods practiced 
ahroad. The prince for some years directed the Society of Mines Royal. Most of the 
mining terms still in use among miners indicate their German origin. Hence smelt, 
from schm.elzen, to melt; slag, "from schiagen or cinder; sump (the cavity below the 
shaft), from sumpf, a hog or pit ; spern, a point or buttress ; and so on with other 
terms familiar in mining operations. 



3G2 EARL Y FOREIGN AR TISANS. 

named Frederick Corsellis,* who made his first essay at Oxford, and after- 
ward set up presses at Westminster, St. Alban's, and Worcester. The first 
books printed by Caxton himself were printed on foreign-made paper ; but in 
1507 one Wilham Tate erected a mill at Hertford, where the whitey-brown 
paper was made on which Wjnikyn de Worde printed his edition of Barthol- 
omew's De Proprietatius Reruin, the first book printed in England on En- 
ghsh-made paper. Tate's mill, however, does not seem to have prospered, 
and the manufacture of paper was discontinued. Another was then stai-ted 
by one Eemigius, a Gennan, who was invited into England for the purpose ; 
and a third venture was made by Sir Thomas Gresham, but all alike failed ; 
and it was not until John Spilman, the German jeweler of Queen EHzabeth, 
erected his large paper-mill at Dai'tford, in 1598, that tliis branch of manufac- 
ture may be said to have become estabhshed in England. The queen gi-ant- 
ed him an exclusive patent to "buy lynnen ragges and make paper" thereof, 
and, judging from the number of men employed by Spilman, he must have 
carried on a large trade, t It may be added that the manufactm-e of paper 
still continues a thii\ing branch of industry at Dartford and the neighborhood. 

The manufacture of felt hats was inti'oduced by Spaniards and Dutchmen 
in 1524, before which time the ordinary covering for the head was knitted 
caps, cloth hoods, and "thromed hats," the common people for the most part 
going bare-headed as well as bare-legged. An old vniter quaintly obsei'ves, 
' ' Spaniards and Dutchmen instructed us how to make Spanish felts, and the 
French taught us not only how to perfect the mystery of making hats, but also 
how to take them oif ;" and he adds, " 'Twas in Elizabeth's reign the Dutch 
taught us to cloathe ourselves, as the French did, in another queen's reign, 
how to uncloathe ourselves, "t 

Glove-making was, in like manner, taught us by foreigners, the first emi- 
nent glover being Andreas de Loos, who held a license from Queen Eliza- 
beth for making 200,000 pelts yearly, paying her majesty 20s. the thousand. 

The glass-manufacture was brought into England by Venetians. Jacob 
Venalini was the first who started a glass-work, in 1 564, in Crutched Friars' 
Hall, but his operations were shortly put a stop to by a fire occasioned by the 
intense heat of his furnaces, and the building was burnt down. Queen Eliz- 
abeth also licensed two Flemings, Anthony Been and John Care, to erect 
furnaces for making window-glass, at Greenwich, in 1567 ; and two of their 
fellow-countrymen, Peter Briet and Peter Appell, continued the manufacture. 

* In The Danqer of the Church and Kingdom from. Fordfiners co7i3iderM (London, 
1721), it is stated: " From Holland the art of printing was brought into England by 
Caxton and Turner about the year 1471, whom King Henry VI. sent thither to learn 
that mystery. These two fellows, not being able to gain their ends there, cunningly 
wheedled into England one Frederick Corsellis, a Dutch printer at Haarlem. This 
mercenary foreigner, having made his first essay at Oxford, set up printing-houses at 
Westminster, St. Alban's, and Worcester." 
t Thomas Churchyard, a poet of the sixteenth centuiy, thus speaks of him : 
" Then, he that made for us a paper-mill. 
Is worthy well of love and worldes good will, 
And though his name be Spill-msLn oy degree, 
Yet Help-miiu now, he shall be calde by me. 
• , Six hundred men are set at work by him, 
That else might starve, or seek abroad their bread ; 
Who nowe live well, and go full braw and trim. 
And who may boast they are with paper fed." 
t The Danger of the Church and Kingdom from Foreigners considered (London, 1721). 



GLASS MANUFA CTURE. 363 

At that time glass was regarded as so precious, that during the Duke of 
, Northumberland's absence from Alnwick Castle, the steward was accustomed 
to take out the glazed Avindows, and stow them awaj until his grace's return, 
the glass being apt to be blown out by the high winds. Even in the next 
century, or as late as 1G61, glass had not been generally inti'oduced ; the ro}-- 
al palaces in Scotland being only glazed in their upper windows, the lower 
ones being provided with wooden shutters. 

Another Italian, named James Verselyn, established a second glass-house 
at Greenwich, for manufactuiing the better kinds of glass ; and Evelyn, 
\M-iting of this "Italian glass-house" more than a century later, says that 
"glass was then blown in England of finer metal than that of Murano at 
Venice." Another glass-house was erected at Greenwich in the reign of 
James I. Some refugee Flemings established a work at Newcastle-on- 
Tyne,* where the manufacture still fiomishes ; and some Venetians cairied 
on the manufactui'e, helped by the French refugee workmen, at Pinner's Hall 
in Austin Friars, London, where the best descriptions of glass were then 
made. The Flemings excelled in glass-painting ; one of them, Beraai-d van 
Linge, established in London in 1614, being the first to practice the art in 
England. This artist supplied the vnndows for Wadham College, the beau- 
tiful window of Lincoln's Inn Chapel, and several subjects for Lincoln's Col- 
lege Chapel. 

It will thus be found that in all manufactures requiring special skill, our 
main rehance was upon foreigners do^vn to the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury ; and the finest fabrics of aU kinds were, as a rule, made almost exclu- 
sively by foreign workmen. Even in masonry and carpentry, when work of a 
superior kind was required, as well as in drainage and engineering, the prac- 
tice was to send abroad, not only for the master-builder or engineer, but for 
workmen and the principal materials. Thus, when Sir Thomas Gresham 
built the I^yal Exchange in 1 5G6, he brought from Flanders the requisite 
masons and cari)enters to execute it, under the direction of Henryke, their 
master-builder. The foreigners also brought witli them all necessary materi- 
als — the wainscot, the glass, the slates, the iron, and even much of the stone 
for the building. In short, as Holinshed relates, Gresham ' ' bargained for 
the whole moidd and substance of his workmanship in Flanders, "t Only the 
laborers employed upon the structm'e were provided fi'om among the London 
workmen, who do not seem to have been in great repute at the time, for Sir 
Stephen Soame says of the house-pamters in Elizabeth's reign that " among 
tlie nimiber of three hiindred painters now in London, there are not twelve 
sufficient workmen to be found among them, and one of these (he being fifty 
years old, and such was his poverty) was fain for his relief to wear, upon 
Lord-mayor's day, a blue gown and red cap, and carry a torch !" 

Although English manufactures were in gradual course of estabhshment in 

• It is a curious fact that the mannfacture of window-glass in England should have 
first been attempted at Newcastle-on-Tyne as early as the year 670. The Abbot Ben- 
edict then brought over some glass-blowers from Gaul, probably Italians, for the pur- 
pose of manufacturing the glass required for the church and monastery of Wearmouth 
Abbey ; but when the glass had been made, the furnaces were extinguished, and re- 
mained so for more than SOO years. 

t H01.1N6HEI), ed. 1S07, i., 395. See also Bue&on— L?/e of Sir T. Gresham, ii., 117. 



364 EARLY FOREIGN ARTISANS. 

the face of many difficulties,* arising principally from the non-industrial hab- 
its of the people — for skilled indostiy is a matter of habit, and the product, it 
may be, of centuries of education — the English markets continued to be sup- 
plied u-ith the better sorts of manufactured articles principally from abroad. 
Our iron and steel wares came from Gei-many, France, Flanders, and Spain ; 
our hats, paper, and linen (hollands), from Holland ; our stone drinking-pots 
from Cologne ; our glass from Italy and the Low Countries ; and silks, bays, 
ribbons, gloves, lace, and other articles of wearing apparel, from Flanders 
and France. The writer of an old book, entitled A Brief Account of English 
Poesy, referring to the large trade in French, Spanish, Flemish, Milan, and 
Venetian articles in the reign of Edward VI., obseri'ed, "I mervail no man 
taketh heed to it what number of trifles come hither from beyond the seas 
that we might clean spare, or else make them within our realm; for the 
which we either pay inestimable treasure eveiy year, or else exchange sub- 
stantial wares and necessaiy for them, for the which we might receive gi-eat 
treiism'e. " 

Under these circumstances, it was natural that the English monarchs, see- 
ing the great wealth and power, as well as profitable employment for the poor- 
er classes, which followed the estabhshment of leading branches of industrj' 
among the population, should have systematically pm'sued the poHcy of inrit- 
ing foreign artisans from all countries to settle in England, and protected 
them by royal patents, thereby enabling them to pursue their several callings 
without interference fi'om the native guilds. This course seems to have been 
adopted at different times, with more or less effect, from the reign of Edward 
I. downward ;t and as late as the reign of James I. — the industiy of Eng- 
land being still in as much need as ever of foreign help — we find that mon- 
arch going so far as to employ agents to bring from Rochelle " three prune 
workmen," for the pm-j^ose of instmcting his subjects in the process of manu- 
facturing the alum used in dyeing; and the "three prime workmen" were 
smuggled out of the French port " in hogsheads.''X 

These effbrts made by successive English monarchs to establish new branch- 
es of industry were not always successful. The patents which they granted 
■ for the pui-pose of encouraging them frequently proved oppressive monopolies, 

* The flax-mannfactnre was eventncally established at Bridport ; an old charter cou- 
feniug upon the town a monopoly iu the snppljr of naval cordage. To be " stabbed 
with a Bridport dagger" passed into a proverb, signifying the use of Bridport rope >u 
the yard-arm or the gallows. Northampton was said to stand chiefly on other men's 
legs, being early distinguished for its make of boots and shoes. StafFordshix'e was 
celebrated for its nails, Sheffield for its whistles, Bristol for its gray soap, Taunton for 
its serges, and Ripon for its spurs: hence the proverb, "As true steel as Ripou row- 
els." 

t Henry Vin. seems to have been a great patron of foreigners, for we find his cntler 
to have been one Marinas Garet, a native of Normandy ; his goldsmith, Henry Holt- 
esweller, a native of Burg, in Germany ; his tailor, Stepen Jesper, a native of Hai- 
nault; at the same time that the " chief surgeon ofhisbody" was one John Veyreri, de- 
scribed as " Nemausau ex regione lingute Auxitanae."* In the same reign we find for- 
eiga "bei-e brewers" settling among ns; one of these, bearing the appropriate name 
of Adam Barl, a native of Wesel, obtaining letters of denization in 1512. The king 
also, like several of his predecessors, induced a number of German armorers, princi- 
pally from Nuremberg, to settle in England and instruct his subjects in the practice 
of their art. 

t Machinery muL Manufactures of Great Britain^W ealo's Quarterly Papers on En- 
gineerinjr, 117. 

* See Letters of Denizatiou in Brewer'8 Calendar of State rajteri, reg. Henry VIU., 1509-14. 



GUILDS AND TRADES UNIONS. 365 

the immediate effect of which was to compel the public to pay excessive prices 
for the articles made by the protected foreigners, and still the manufactm-es 
often refused to take root among us. The gi-owth of the new industries were 
also to a great extent hindered by |he proceedings of the manufacturers them- 
selves. Few in number, they were prone to combine for the purpose of keep- 
ing up the prices of their commodities ; while the workmen, following their 
example, combined to keep up the rate of wages. Man seems by nature to 
be a bigot and monopolist in matters of trade ; but this is only saying, in 
other words, that he is selfish and that he is human. No sooner was any 
new branch of industiy started, than its members set up guilds and coi-pora- 
tions for the purpose of confining its benefits as much as possible to them- 
selves. Those who were ^rithin the pale of the protected craft combined to- 
gether rigorously to exclude aU who were outside it. Hence the repetition 
by tlie cloth-weavers of Norwich, at a veiy early period, of the same tyranny 
which had almost ruined the trade of Ghent and Bniges. The Flemish 
weavers, who had been the victims of monopoly in Brabant, had scarcely es- 
tabhshed themselves in Norfolk ere the hard lessons which then* fathers had 
learned were forgotten, and the trades unions of the Low Countries were 
copied almost to the letter. The usual methods of maintaining prices and 
wages were enforced — long apprenticeships, limitation in the number of ap- 
prentices, and rigorous exclusion of all "strangers." And when the native 
population at length came to learn the secrets of the trade, they too, in theu- 
turn, sought to exclude the very Flemings who had taught it them. The 
" cursede foiTainers" were repeatedly attacked by the native workmen, and in 
1 369 some of them even fell victims to the popular fur}'. On this King Ed- 
wai'd, at whose inritation they had been induced to settle in the country, is- 
sued a proclamation declaring the Flemish workmen to be under his special 
protection, and the native violence was for a time held in check. 

The evils arising from the absm'd restrictions of the Norwich guilds were, 
however, less easy of correction ; but they carried with them their own prm- 
ishment, and. in com-se of time they wi'ought their own cure. They drove 
away many workmen who could not, or would not comply with then- regula- 
tions, and they prevented other workmen from settling in the place and cai*- 
rying on their trade. The consequence was, that the artisans proceeded to 
other miprivUeged places, mostly in the north of England, and there laid the 
foundations of the great manufacturing towns of Manchester, Leeds, and Shef- 
field 5 wliile the trade of Norwich itself languished, and many of its houses 
stood empty. To remedy these evils, which the cupidity of the Norwich 
guilds had brought upon their city, the Flemish artisans were appealed to, 
and m-ged by promises of favor and protection to settle again in the place, for 
it was clear that the guildmen could not yet dispense with the skill and indus- 
try of the strangers. These invitations had then- effect ; and with the in- 
creased settlements of Flemings (desciibed in the text), the prosperity of tlie 
place was again restored. 

The same native hostility to the foreigners displayed itself in London and 
other towns, and occasionally led to serious public commotions, notwithstand- 
ing their being under the protection of the crown. The vulgar and ignorant 
of all countries, as a rule, hate foreigners. Their dress is strange, and their 



366 EARL Y FOREIGN ARTISA NS. 

language stranger ; their manners and customs are unusual, and their habits 
peculiar ; and they are almost invariably looked upon by the less educated 
classes with prejudice and suspicion, if not with hostility. This is especiiilly 
the case where — as the ignorant poor are so ready to believe — the bread eaten 
by the foreigners is so much bread taken out of their own mouths. This na- 
tive aversion to the Flemish workmen, originating in these causes, not unfre- 
quently displayed itself in England, and was taken advantage of by dema- 
gogues. Thus, when Wat Tyler burst into the city witb his followers hi 
1381, the Flemings were among the first to suifer from their fury. Thirteen 
of them were di'agged from tlie chm*ch in Austin Friars, where they had 
taken refuge ; seventeen from another church ; while thirty-two were seized 
in the Tintiy, besides others in Southwark. They were caiTied before Wat 
Tyler, who is said to have tested the nationality of the prisoners by their pro- 
nunciation of the words "bread and cheese." If it sounded any tiling like 
"brod and cawse" they were pronounced Flemings, and executed forthwith. 
During the same revolt the Hanseatic merchants were in great peril ;* but, 
fortunately for them, they had taken the precaution to smTOund their ware- 
house fortress in Dowgate -mth strong walls, and, having barred their iron- 
clamped doors, they eifectually resisted the assaults of the rioters until the 
authorities had recovered from theii- panic, and proceeded to restore ciril 
order by the strong arm of the law. 

At a later period, in 1493, the mob were more successful in their attack 
upon the Steelyard, which they broke into and completely gutted. This riot 
was supposed to have been instigated by the native merchants, who were 
jealous of the privileges granted to the strangers, under which they conduct- 
ed almost the entire foreign trade of the countiy. But the antipathy of the 
mob to the foreigners reached its height about the beginning of the reign of 
Hemy VIII., when a fonnidable riot broke out (in 151 7), which was long aft- 
er kno^^^l as "Evil May-day." Large numbers of foreign artisans then 
crowded the suburbs, where they made and sold a variety of articles, to the 
supposed prejudice of the London workmen. The Flemings abounded in 
Southwark, Westminster, Tottenham, and St. Catharine's, all outside the free- 
dom of the city. Hall, in his Life of Henri/ VIII., says, " There were sucli 
numbers of them employed as artificers that the English could get no work." 
It was also alleged that " they export so much wool, tin, and lead, that En- 
glish adventurers can have no living;" and the Dutch were especially com- 
plained against because of their importations of lai-ge quantities of "iron, 
timber, and leather, ready manufactured, and nails, locks, baskets, cupboard?, 
stools, tables, chests, girdles, saddles, and painted cloths." Probably the 
real secret of the outcry was that the foreign artisans were more industrious, 

* The Hanseatic merchantB, or "Steelyard Company of Forei.2:n Merchants," occu- 
pied extensive premises in Downgard (now Dowgate) Ward, in Upper Thames Street. 
There they had their gnildhall, dwellings, and warehouses, surrounded by a stroui,' 
wall, with a whai-f on the Thames. For a long time nearly the whole foreign trade 
of the country was conducted by these merchants, who exported English wool and 
imported foreign merchandise, paying toll at Billingsgate in fine cloth, gloves, pepper, 
and vinegar. The exclusive privileges of the Steelyard merchants at length became 
the subject of such general complaint, and were regarded as so prejudicial to the de- 
velopment of native commerce, that they were withdra^vn in 1552. Their extensive 
premises occupied part of the site of the present Cannon Street Railway Station. 



EVIL MA Y~DA Y, 1517. 367 

and manufactured better and cheaper things than the English could then do. 
One John Lincoln, a broker, was loudest of all in his complaints against the 
foreigners, and by his influence a popular preacher named BeU was led to de- 
nounce them from the pulpit ; and he declaimed with so much eloquence on 
the hai'dships suffered by the native-bom freemen in consequence of their 
competition, that the city was soon throT^ni into a ferment. 

In this state of excitement, the apprentices, a rather turbulent class, en- 
coaraged each other to insult and abuse the foreigners whom they met in the 
streets. On the 2Sth of April, a body of them set upon and beat the Flem- 
ings in so shameful a manner that the lord-mayor found it necessary to inter- 
fere ; and he, accordingly, had the offenders seized by the city watch, and 
lodged in the compter. The indignation of the populace became greater than 
ever, and a riot was apprehended. C'ardinal Wolsey sent for the lord-mayor 
and aldennen, and told them that he would hold them responsible for the 
ti-anquillity of the city. Prompt measures were taken to provide against the 
apprehended rising of the mob, and on May-day-eve tlie magistrates resolved 
to issue orders to every householder in the city to keep themselves, their chil- 
dren, apprentices, and servants strictly within doors on the following day ; 
but before the order could be issued the riot broke out, and the cry was raised 
of " 'Prentices ! 'prentices! clubs! clubs!" Several hundred watermen, por- 
ters, and idlers joined the rioters, who forthwith broke open the compter and 
released the prisoners. In the mean time, the foreigners, apprehending the 
outbreak, had for the most part taken the precaution to depart from the city 
to Islington, Hackney, and other villages outside the walls, so that the rioters 
could only expend their fury upon their dwellings, which were speedily pil- 
laged and destroj^ed. 

The Eaiig of Shrewsbuiy and Sun-ey then entered the city at the head of a 
strong body of troops, tmd aided the lord-mayor in captming nearly 300 of 
the rioters. Lincoln the broker, and BeU the preacher, were also apprehend- 
ed. These, with ten others, were foTind guilty and sentenced to death ; but 
Lincoln only was hanged, and the otliers were reprieved until the king's pleas- 
m-e should be known. Heniy ordered the lord-mayor, the sheriffs and alder- 
men, with the prisoners, 278 in number, to appeal* before him at Westminster 
Ilall. The fonner wore mourning in token of contiition for their negligence ; 
the latter had halters round their necks. Wolsey addressed the magistrates 
in the king's name, and severely rebuked them for not having taken proper 
precautions to insui-e the peace of the city, and protect the lives and property* 
of the strangers, who carried on their industry in the full reliance that they 
Avould be protected by the magisti'acy as well as by the law. Then address- 
ing the prisoners, Wolsey asked them -what they could plead in extenuation 
of their deep offense, and whereupon they should not one and all suffer death. 
Their sobs and cries for mercy softened the king's heart ; some of the nobil- 
ity around him besought the pardon of the unhappy culprits, which was gi'ant- 
ed, and the prisoners were discharged. 

This severe lesson had its effect upon the unruly populace, and the foreign 
artisans returned to their homes, the city being compelled to make good tlie 
damage which had been done to them by the destniction of their dwellings 
and fui-niture, and the interruption of tLeu- industry. 



368 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

On the whole, the authorities acted with creditable -vngor on the occasion ; 
and though discontent at the subsequent extensive immigration of foreign ar- 
tisans frequently displayed itself, there was never such another wild outbreak 
of the London mob as that which happened on the long-remembered "Evil 
May-day." 



n. REGISTERS OE ERENCH PROTESTANT CHUIiCHES IN 
ENGLAND. 

The records of most of the Huguenot chm-ches have been lost. The con- 
gregations died out, and left no traces, except in contemporaiy accounts of 
them, which are imperfect. The registers of some of the more important 
have, however, been preserved, and are of a peculiarly interesting chai-acter. 

A royal commission having been appointed, some twenty-five years since, 
to collect the non-parochial registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials, un- 
der the powers of the new Registration Act, a considerable number of the rec- 
ords of the extinct Fi'cnch chm-ches were brought to light, collected, and 
placed in the custody of the Registrar General at Somerset House, where they 
now are. The greater number of these registers originally passed through 
the hands of Mr. J. Southernden Bum, secretary to the commission, who in 
1846 published the results of a careful examination of them in his History of 
the Foreign Protestant Refugees settled in England. 

Notwithstanding Mi". Bmn's almost exhaustive treatise, the author has 
thought it desirable to have the registers re-examined for the pm-poses of the 
present work ; and the following analysis, the result of a careful search, has 
been kindly made for him by Mr. Frederick Martin, author of Tlie States- 
man's Year- Booh. 

The registers of Erench Protestant churches preserved at Somerset House 
are as foUow : 

French Churches in London. ^SUSr?^ 

Tlireadneedle Street, City, removed to Pounders Hall Chapel 1599-1753 

St. Martin Ongai-'s, Cannon Street, removed to Tlireadneedle 

Street 1690-1762 

French Chapel, Savoy, Strand 1684-1822 

Glasshouse Street Chapel 1688-1699 

Hungerford Chapel, Hungerford Market 1688-1727 

Le Temple 1689-1782 

Swallow Street Chapel 1690-1709 

Le Quarre, Little Deane Street 1690-1763 

Le Tabernacle 1696-1710 

Leicester Fields Chapel 1699-1783 

French Chapel Royal, St. James's 1700-1754 

Ryder's Court Chapel, St. Ann's, Westminster 1700-1750 

La Charenton, Newport Market 1701-1704 

Les Grecs, Crown Street, afterward in Little Edward Street 1703-1731 



FRENCH CHURCHES IN LONDON. 369 

West Street Chapel, Soho 1706-1743 

Berwick Street Chapel 1720-1788 

Castle Street Chapel, Leicester Squaxe 1725-1754 

Hoxton Chapel 1748-1783 

EgHse Neuve, Church Sti-eet, Spitalfields 1753-1809 

Eglise de Swan Fields, do 1721-1735 

Eglisede St Jean, St. John Street, do 1687-1823 

Eghse de I'ArtiJlerie, AitiUeiy Sti'eet,do 1691-1786 

Eglise de Wheeler Street, do 1703-1741 

E^se de la Patents, do 1689-1785 

Eglise de Crespin Sti-eet, do 1694-1716 

Perle Street, do 1700-1701 

Ben Lane, do .'. 1711-1716 

Eglise de Marche, do 1719 

French Churches in the Country. 

Walloon Church, Canterbury 1581-1837 

Malt House, do 1709-1744 

Norwich Walloon and French Church 1599-1611 

Plymouth 1733-1807 

Stjulien, or God's House," Southampton 1567-1799 

Stonehouse, near Plymouth 1692-1791 

Eglise de Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex 1684-1726 

Thomey Abbey 1654-1727 

It will be observed, from the dates of the entries in the registers, that sev- 
eral of them are exceedingly imperfect. Many books have been altogether 
lost. Of those which have been preserved, the following present the princi- 
pal features worthy of notice : 

French Protestant Church of Threadneedle Street, London. 
Established about 1546. 

The registers of this chm-ch are in thirteen volumes, in a good state of 
preservation. The first volume, folio size, contains entries of baptisms and 
marriages from 1599 to 1636. Most of the entries ai-e very short, giving 
nothing more than the names of the parties, and in some cases the places of 
their origin. The notices of baptism run : " Mardy, 29 Janvier, 1599, Jean 
le Quion, fils de Jean le Quion et d'Ester sa femme, fut presents, an Ste Bap- 
tesme par Ei-hart Franco Anglois et Editho Ansolam, Mario Penart femme 
de Valentin Marchant et Marie Bigot femme d'Estienne Thierry;" while 
the marriages are mostly entered as foRows : "Le dimanche 27 Janvier, 
1599 ; Isidore fils de feu Jacques Pinchon natif d'Armentiers et Bastieime 
du Mont veuve de Lazare Martin native de Valenciennes, furent epouse le 
diet jour." As far as can be judged from the earlier entries, most of the 
persons whose names occur were natives of the north of France and of the 
Walloon provinces. The annual number of baptisms entered in the first vol- 
ume averages from 80 to 150 during the period from 1599 to 1610, and from 
140 to 100 in the years fr'om 1611 to 1636. 

Aa 



370 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

The second volume of the registers of Threadneedle Street Church has en- 
tries of baptisms from 1636 to 1691, and of marriages from 1636 to 164.'). 
The latter fill not more than eight pages ; but the baptisms are exceedingly- 
numerous, including, as stated in the volume — a foKo more tLa.u two inches 
thick — those of the chapel of L'Hopital at Spitalfields. From the commence- 
ment of the year 1670 tiU the end of the year 1679, the number of baptisms 
entered amounts to 1123, comprising 578 boys and 545 gii-ls. The notices 
are veiy meagre, giving nothing but the namea of the pai'ents and of the god- 
father and godmother. 

The third volume contains only entries of baptisms, including, as before, 
those of L'Hopital, commencing in 1698 and ending in 1711. The baptisms 
during this period number 7032, comprising 3522 boys and 3510 gii-ls, or an 
average of 540 pef annum. In most cases the occupation of the male pai^ent 
is given, and in nine entries out often it is set down as "weaver," or, as fre- 
quently speUed, " wever." The word " ouvrier en soye" occurs up to the year 
1699, after which the English term is substituted, not only here, but in refer- 
ence to other trades mentioned, such as "watchmaker," "diamant-cutter," 
"haberdasher," "ivoiy-tm-ner," and "cloth-printer." Toward the end of 
the book scarcely any other trade occurs but that of "weaver," 

The fom'tli volume, a folio about an inch and a half thick, contains entries 
of baptisms from the beginning of 1691 tiU the end of 1727. All the entries 
ai-e very short, mentioning merely the name of the pai-ents and of godfather 
and godmother. There is much confusion in the dates, which spring forward 
and backward, making calculations of the numbers very difficult. No entries 
of any interest occur. 

The whole of the remaining nine volumes — of various sizes, from the largest 
folio to the smallest duodecimo — ai-e filled with mere index-like entries of 
baptisms and man-iages, ranging over the period from 1650 to 1753. Against 
the cover of the fifth volume is pasted the ofiicial "certificate," describing the 
registers. It is as follows : " The tliirteen accompanying books are the orig- 
inal register-books of baptisms and marriages whicli have been kept for the 
church called the London Walloon Cluu'ch, being of the French Protestant 
denomination, situate in Threadneedle Street, in the city of London, foimded 
about the year 1540. The books have been, from time to time, in the cus- 
tody of the consistoiy for the time being of the congregation, and are sent to 
the commissioners from the immediate custody of the said consistory. Sign- 
ed the 21st of October, 1 840. F. Mai-tin, minister." 

Among the names which most frequently occur in the register are those of 
Du Bois, Denys, Primerose, Mahieu (Mayhew), Bultel, Brunet, Coppinger, 
Felles, Mariot (Mariott), Pinchon, Ducaue or Du Quesne, Vincent, Leadbit- 
ter, Pontin, Waldo, De la Man-e, and Papillon. 

Among the ministers of the church were Fran<;ois La Riviere and Richard 
Francois, appointed in 1550 ; Samuel le Chevalier (1591) ; Gilbert Primerose, 
also long's chaplain (1028); Pien'e Dumoulin (1*624); Ezekiel Maimet. 
(1631); Charles Bertheau (1687) ; Jacques Saurin (1701); Ezechiel Barbauld 
(1704); Jean Jacques Claude, grandson of the celebrated Claude (\,7n); 
David Henry Durand (1 760) ; and Jean Rorailly (1766). 



FRENCH CHURCH OF THE SA VOY. 371 



French Church of the Savoy, Strand, London. 

These registers are in two folios, the first with entries of marriages from 
1684 to 1753, and the second, a much thinner volume, with entries of bap- 
tisms, maiTiages, banns, and sundry other notices, from 1699 to 1773. The 
title-page of the first book is "Livi-e des Mariages de I'Eglise frangoise de la 
Savoye, commence au nom de Dieu a Londres le premier May, 1684," In 
the earlier entries, only the names of the bridegi'oom and bride, together with 
that of the officiating minister, are given ; but the latter notices are a little 
fuller, mentioning frequently the origin and domicile of the married couple, as 
wen as their trade and profession. This is the case pai-ticularly from the 
year 1700, the first entry of which notes the nuptials of "Jean Anthoine 
Laroche, chimrgien, demeurant en Panton Street, paroisse de St. Martin-in- 
the-Fields, a I'enseigne d'un baston de chimrgien." 

In many of the descriptions of domicile there is a curious mixture of French 
and English. Under date of July 20, 1700, is entered the marriage of 
"Pierre Pinsun, lieutenant, loge en Berwick Street, nex door to Mr. Clerck, 
King's Messenger, paroisse St. James;" and the entry after this, dated July 
21, 1700, refers to "Jacob Bouchet, vermisseur, demem*ant paroisse St. 
James, in St. James Street, chez un Sheesmonguer a I'enseigne de I'lndien." 
The next four entries record the nuptials of " Pierre Deconde de Lai'gni, cap- 
itaine dans les troupes de HoUande, demeurant en Sofolstreet chez Madame 
Benoist, au milieu de la rae ;" of "Jean Maret, officier de Marine, loge en la 
paroisse de St. Anne, Westminster, in Bruce Street, joignent I'enseigne de 
Marocco ;" of " Paul Lescot, ministre de St. Evangille, demeurant en Ruper- 
sti'eet aux deux piliers noirs, vis-a-vis une boutique de cuisinier ou rotisseur ;" 
and of " Michel Cauvin, menusier, demeurant en Contompt Street, proche 
I'enseigne des trois pigeons." The surgeons and physicians are rather nu- 
merously represented ; and in 1704 there is one " Estienne Baron dit Dupont, 
operatem- pour les dents. " 

Under date of Nov. 22, 1719, there is an entry of unusual length, differing 
in form from all others. It runs: " Je sousigne Saville Bradely, chapelain 
de Mylord due de Eichemont, recteur de Earnly dans la province de Sussex 
en Angleterre, certifie avoir aujourdhui marie Ecuyer Chaiies Theodore de 
Maxiiel, capitain dans le regiment de Gauvain au service de sa Majeste 
Britannique, "k la demoiselle Marthe Susanne Degennes, fille de Daniel De- 
gennes sieur de la Picottiere, et de dame Judith Kavenel, demeurant k Mor- 
laix en Bretagne, dans I'hotel de son Excellence Mylord Comte de Stair, 
ambassadem- extraordinaire du Roy de la Grande Bretagne a Paris ce neuf 
de Novembre, mille sept cens dix neuf." The entries from 1700 to 1726 av- 
erage twenty per annum ; but subsequent to the latter date there is a gi-adu- 
al decHne, tiU toward the end there are not more than two marriages a year. 
The last is dated October 14, 1753. 

The second volume of the Savoy records, a very thin folio, is fiUed with en- 
tries of baptisms, most of them very short, interspersed with notices and let- 
ters relating to the same. There is great confusion among the whole of the 
entiies ,• many of them are struck through with the pen, and queries attached 
to others. At the end is a certificate of the " Commissau-es nommes pai* la 



372 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES, 

compagnie du Consistoire de I'Eglise de la Savoie," stating that they have 
examined the registers, and " corrige' les fautes qui nous ont parus essentielles 
avec tout le soin et I'attention, dont nous avons e'te capables." The certifi- 
cate seems to refer to many more books than those now at the General Reg- 
ister Office. 

Among the celebrated ministers of this church were James Abbadie (1700), 
James Severin (1703), Claude de la Mothe (1705), John Dubourdieu (1709), 
Louis Saurin (1711), J. J. Majendie (1735), and David Dm-and, D.D., the 
weU-known author. 

Swallow Street Cliapel, London. 

The registers of this place of worship, bound in a thin folio, contain entries 
of baptisms and marriages, with various other notices chiefly r.elating to con- 
versions and " reconnoissances," from the year 1690 to 1709. Nearly all the 
entries are of some length, with many particulars as to the birth, origin, and 
nationality of the individuals concerned. One of the first entries runs : " Le 
Dimanche dixhuitieme jom- de May, 1690, a este baptise Prideric fils de Guy 
Mesming, docteur en medecine et Anne Marie son epouse, ayant Monsieur 
Wolfgang de Schmettau ministre d'Estat et Envoye Extraordinaii-e de sa 
Serenite Electorale de Brandeboui'g vers leur Majestes Britanniques et Mon- 
sieur Jean de Remy de Montigny gentilhomme de la Reyne pom- parrain, et 
dam'*- Madeleine Olympe Beauchamp pour marraine, lesquels ont dit I'enfant 
etre ne le 12 jour de May dernier, present mois et an, et ont signe." Here 
follow the signatures of the parents, godfather and godmother, with ' ' Lamothe, 
ministre," at the end. Almost all the entries of baptism are in a similar fonn, 
while of the marriages the foUowing is a specimen: "Le Samedy septieme 
jour de Novembre an 1091, a este beny en ceste Eglise, Monsieur Mollet, 
ministre de I'Eglise fran9oise de Colchester, et Marguerite Bureau, presentee 
par Isaac Bureau son p^re en vertu d'une licence a eux accordee le vingt- 
neuvieme jour d'Octobre dernier et ont signe." . . . . Here again foUow the 
signatures of the persons mentioned, together with that of the minister. 

The notices of " reconnoissance" (acknowledgment of sin or backsHding) 
are rather numerous, running usuaUy as follows: "Vendi'edy premier jom' 
de I'anne'e 1692, Claude Richier refugie de MontpeUier a temoigne en pre- 
sence de ceste Eglise sa repentance d'avou' succombe sous le faix de la perse- 
cution en abjurant notre sainte Rehgion, ce qu'il a confirme' en signant le 
present acte." There is the entry of a conversion on the next page : "Le 
Dimanche cinq jom- de May, jom- de la Pentecoste, Susanne Auvray, native 
de Paris, a fait abjuration publique en ceste Eghse des errem-s et supersti- 
tions du Papisme, apres avoir adonne des preuves d'une solide instruction, de 
sa piet(^ et de ses bonnes moeurs, ce qu'eUe a confirme en signant cet acte." 
The notices of " reconnoissances" are most numerous in the years 1692-6, aft- 
er which they gradually fall ofi^, disappearing entu-ely with the end of the cen- 
tury. 

Many names of distinguished persons occur among the baptismal entries. 
That of King William figures several times as godfather by proxy. The first 
time his majesty is mentioned it is as follows: "Le Mercredy 13 jour de 
Decembre an 1693 a este baptise par Monsieur de la Mothe I'xm des pasteurs 



''GOD'S house;' SOUTHAMPTON. 373 

de cette eglise, Guillatiine Rabault, fils de Messire Jean Rabault, chevalier 
seigneur de la Coudriere et de dame Nehenee Marguerite, nee Jedouin, son 
epouse, ayant pour parrain le Tres Haut et Tres Puissant Seigneur Guillaume 
Roy d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, de Trance, et d'Irlande, par Mylord Silskirque 
(Selkirk) I'un des gentilsliommes ordinaires de la Chambre de sa Majeste, et 
Mylord Jaques Due d'Ormord, et pour man-aine Dame Caroline Elisabeth, 
Raugrave Palatine, duchesse de Schomberg. " The name of ' ' Monsieui- Grave- 
rol, I'un de ministres de cette eghse," occurs first in January, 1691, in an en- 
try of baptism, signed, in a beautiful hand\vriting, J. Graverol ; while the next 
entry, dated Pebruary, 1691, mentions "Monsieur de Rocheblave, I'un des 
pasteurs de cette eglise." Both names occur again, at intervals, tiU 1698, 
most frequently that of Graverol. The names of the ministers change con- 
stantly, and sometimes as many as four appeal- in one entry. 

The remaining registers of the French chmxhes in London contain few en- 
tries worthy of particular notice. We therefore proceed to an examination 
of the registers of the country churches, more particularly that of the " God's 
House" at Southampton, which wiU be found of peculiar interest. 

CJiurch of St. Julien, or " God's House,'''' Southampton. 

The registers of this church are in one volume folio, about an inch thick, 
strongly bound, and very well preserved. The official certificate, pasted 
against the fly-leaf, states that the volume "is the original Register-book of 
baptisms, mamages, deaths, and other entries, which has been kept for the 
formerly Walloon Church, but now the Protestant Episcopal French Church, 
congregating in the chapel of God's House at Southampton, founded about 
the year 1567." It is fai'ther stated that " the book has been from time to 
time in the custody of the ministers or elders for the time being, and is sent 
to the commissioners from the immediate custody of George Atherley, Esq., 
who has kept it since 1832 as elder and trustee." This certificate beai'S the 
date December 22, 1837, with " Frederick Vincent," minister, at the bottom. 

The first series of entries in this volume, filling about thirty-six pages, are 
lists of persons who attended Holy Communion. The heading of the first 
page is " Ensuyt les noms de ceux qui ont faict professio de lem* foy et admis 
a la Cene le 21 de Decebre, 1567." The number of communicants under this 
date is fifty-eight, the last eight in the list being distinguished as " Anglois." 
The second body of comjnunicants, entered imder date of April 5, 1568, num- 
ber thirty-nine; and the third, under date of July, 1568, amount to ten. 
There is a great variation in the numbers set dovra for the following years ; 
but the entries, which at first contain the mere names, become gi-aduaUy 
more distinct, specifying the place of origin of the communicants, and at 
times, though very rarely, the trade or profession. The trades mentioned 
are " tisseran," " bonlangiei*," " coustelier," and " brasseur ;" and the profes- 
sions "medecin" and "ministre." The medical men are comparatively nu- 
merous. Among the places of origin most firequently mentioned are Valen- 
ciennes, Lisle, Dieppe, " Gemese" (Guernsey), and " Jerse." 

From many entries it appears that the Holy Communion was only admin- 
istered to those newly arrived in the colony after they had furnished satisfac- 



374 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

toiy proofs of being true Protestants. Tlie words "temoignage par ecrit," 
or simply "temoignage," are attached to a great many names. The with- 
holding of the communion occurred often, and for vai-ious causes. Under 
date of 3d July, 1569, there is the entry, " Cene defendue a Martin Lietart 
pom- avoir battu et mam-e sa famme." Again, under date of 2d April, 1570, 
"Cene defendue a Jan Groza pour ivrognerie continueUe." Under date of 
October 1, 1570, the entry is "La Cene fut suspendue a Lille le Felu pom- 
ivrognerie jusques a ce qon voiroit son repentance." Under date of the otli 
of July, 1573, the reason for requiring " temoignages" is distinctly stated to 
be "pour ferre paroir qu'ils estoient dela religion aupai-avant estre sortie de 
la France, de poeur de quelque faux frere qui vien droit pom* espier sous om- 
bre de la religion." Subsequent to the year 1573 there are many entries 
with the word " messe" prefixed, as showing that the communicants had been 
forced to attend mass for a time. There is a note relating to this subject 
under date of January 3, 1574. It runs : " Tiebaut du Befroi, sa femme, son 
fils, et sa fille, apres avoir feet lem- recognaissance publicque d'avoii- estd a la 
messe, furent tons recus a la cene." The entries of " messe" become less nu- 
merous subsequent to 1577; but there are notices of having "communique 
avec les anglois." 

There is visible confusion among the entries of the year 1583, explained by 
a note, dated the 7th of July, as foUows : " Pour la peste quy estoit au milieu 
de nous fut le lendemain de la cene de Juilet les prieres pubhcques commen- 
cees du soir tous les jours hors presche, a 5 hem-es du soir." The short list 
of communicants of August, 1583, has a note attached — "pour nous fortifier 
en foi, en luy priant d'avou* pitie de nous." The ravages of the plague are 
visible for a long time in the small number of persons attending "la Cene," 
who, after the year 1605, are mostly strangers, producing "temoignages," 
or " avec attestation." In the whole year 1630 there are only nine commu- 
nicants entered, six of them " jeunes filles ;" in 1631 there are but five com- 
mmiicants ; and in 1632 but two. Then there is a blank till 1662, when one 
name is entered, while three more follow in 1665. Here end the lists of com- 
municants. 

As a sort of appendix to these lists there follows, after a blank space, the 
entiy of a conversion. It runs : " Le 12 Aoust, 1722. Monsiem* Pierre Car- 
pentier prStre de I'eglise Romaine du troisi^me ordre des franciscains, natif 
de Paris, fit abjuration publicque des erreurs de la dite eglise et fizt recu "k la 
paix de I'Eglise par nous Pierre Denain, docteur en theologie, et ministre de 
cette Eglise." 

After about sixteen blank leaves a new series of entries commences, headed 
"Eegistre des enfans qui ont este baptisees en I'eglise des estrangers WaJons 
en la Ville de Hampton admise par la Mageste de la Royne Elizabeth I'an 
1567." The baptisms commence in December, 1567, when there are two, the 
fathers entered as from Valenciennes and " Hampton," and the mothers from 
London and Valenciennes. In the year ] 568 the baptisms number eight ; in 
1569, nine ; in 1570, seventeen ; in 1571, six ; in 1572, ten ; in 1573, fifteen ; 
in 1574, twenty; in 1575, sixteen; in 1576, twenty-two; and from 1577 to 
the end of the century, they vary from twenty to thirty. But the lists do not 
appear to have been regularly kept, for there are many blank spaces, and the 



" GOD'S HOUSE'' SOUTHAMPTON. 



usual formula, "fat baptize," with name of "parin" or "tesmoin," is often 
very incomplete. There are several entries " fut baptize par Monsieur Hop- 
kins, ministre anglois, " in 1584. The place of origin of the parents is seldom 
giren, but a description of trade or profession occurs in a few instances ; 
among them Pien-e Tiedet, " orfevre ;" Martin, " batteur d'estain ;'* and Phil- 
ippe de laMotte, "ministre de la parole deDieu,"all of which names appeal* 
frequently. " Monsieur de Bouillon, ministre de la paroUe de Dieu," is also 
entered more than once among the parents. 

After the year 1600 the baptismal registers are more confused and iiTegular 
than before, the names of godfathers and witnesses being scarcely ever given. 
From 1634: to 1657 the entries entirely cease, to be resumed only in alternate 
years. Under date of the 23d of July, 1665, is the following note, signed 
" Couraud, Pasteur:" "Dieu ayant afflige notre ville du plus terrible de ses 
fleaux quj a oblige la plus pai-t des habitans d'abandonner leurs maisons, et 
Monsieur Bemert leur pasteur estant detenu de maladie et ayant este con- 
traint de quitter sa demoure pour changer d'air a la campagne, nous avons en 
son absense baptize dans notre Eglise fran9oise un petit enfant Anglois ,ap- 
pelle Nicolas, et ce par I'ordi-e de monsieur le Maire." (Among the death 
entries, farther on in the book, stands, under date of Sept. 21, 1865, " Mon- 
sieur Couraud, notre pasteur — ^peste.") 

There are only seven entiles of baptism in the yeai- 1665, among them 
" Elizabeth, fiUe de Monsieur Com-aud, notre pastem\" The next pastor 
mentioned is " Monsieur Anthoine Cougot, ministre de ceste EgKse et Doc- 
tem- en medecine," described, in 1691, as mai-ried to one "Anthoinette," 
daughter of " Monseigneur Marc Anthoine de Eineste du Falga, gentilhomme 
fran9ois de la province de Languedoc." The entries about this period are 
few in number, including, however, names of some distinction, A child of 
"Abraham BuiUon de St. HiUaire, sm- Lotize en Poitou," and another of 
"Jean Thomes, apoticaire et chirugien de la viUe de Cauvisson en Langue- 
doc" — the latter with " Chaiies Gajot de la Renaudiere, gentilhomme fran9ois 
de la province de Poitou," as godfathei' — are entered in 1691. As far as the 
origin of the parents is stated, the natives of France predominate in the hsta 
subsequent to 1697. Many are entered as " Fran9ois refugiez ;" some from 
"Basse Normandie," some from "Haut Languedoc," but the greater num- 
ber from the province of Poitou, Under date of July, 1702, one " Gerard de 
Vaux, fran9ois, de la viUe de Castres en Haut Languedoc, "is mentioned as 
possessed of a paper-mill, " demeurans an moulin a papier, dans la paroisse de 
South Stoneham," and both in 1699 and m 1705 there occm-s names of oflB- 
cers " dans le regiment du Colonel Mordant," or "Brigadier Mordant ;" while 
in 1711 "Monsieur le lieutenant general Mordant" figures as the godfather 
of twin sons of "Monsieur Eran9ois du Chesne de Euffanes, major infanterie 
de Chevreux en Poitou," 

The entries of baptisms cease in 1779, afiter gi-adually declining in number, 
amounting to only twenty-one in the thirty-three years from 1744. During 
the whole of this period the Reverend "Isaac Jean Barnouin" figures as 
" ministre de cette eghse ," and a note at the end, signed " Hugh Hill, D.D., 
vicar of Holy Rhood," states that "the Rev. Isaac John Barnouin died on the 
30th of March, 1797, and was buried the 6th of April, 1797." 



376 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

The lists of maniages commence in December, 1567, but for about 130 
yeers, till near the end of the seventeenth centmy, the entries are irregular 
and somewhat confused. Subsequently they are fuU of details as to the birth, 
origin, and, at times, the profession of the bridegroom and bride. Dm-ing 
the plague of 1665-6, many English couples were married in the Prench 
church, the English clergymen having all fled from the town. Hence such 
entries as the following : " Jacob Berger et Sara Baylie, tons deux Englois, 
recevrent la Benediction deleut marriage p nostre pastern- en L'Eglise de St. 
Jean en cette viUe, les Ministres Englois ayant abandone leur tropeaux a 
cause de la peste qui ravagoit en ce lieu ce 4^'" de Decembre, 1665." The 
following is a specimen of the ordinaiy entries : *'Le 29 Novembre, 1702, a 
ete' beni pai- moi Antoine Cougot le marriage de Jean Lefebre, oi-phevi-e de sa 
profession, demeurant a Londres, fils de feu Jean le Fabre, marchand de la 
viUe de Chalons en Champagne et de Marie Conteneau sas pere et mere, d'une 
part, et d'Esther ViUeneau, fiUe de Charles ViUeneau marchand dans I'lsle de 
Re et d'Esther Sorre ses pere et mere d'autre part. Lequel marriage a ete 
benit apres la publication de trois annonces." The entries of mamages are 
never numerous, either before or after the year 1700 — averaging, on the 
whole, not more than two a year. From 1710 to 1720 there are but six; 
from 1720 to 1730, but seven ; and from the latter date till 1753, only three. 
The Rev. Isaac Jean Bai-nouin, in the whole of his long ministry, enters but 
two marriages — one in 1736, and the other in 1753. Very few of the names 
found in the lists of baptisms reoccm- among the maiTiages, which appear to 
have taken place chiefly among persons settled at "Hamptone,"or, quite as 
frequently, between natives of the Channel Islands. 

The marriage-lists are followed by twenty-three blank pages, after which 
commences the death-register. It is headed " Registre de Ceux qui sont mors 
de I'eglise de Estrangers Walons admise par la Maieste de la Royne Elizabeth 
en la Ville de Hamptone, 1567." The first entries are very short, giring 
merely the name; but in 1570 there is a lengthened notice of the death of 
one *' Jherome Dentiere," native of " Lanbrechie aupres de Lille lez flandi-e," 
farther described as " souldat a monsieur de Bergne," who aiTived iU, " et vint 
a Refuge de cette Eglise tant pom- estre aide en sa nesessite come pour avoir 
consoUation, et fut garde a la maison de foy le pen-e bien long-temps et au 
grand despens des poures, mais par la fin trespassa le 17 jour de May, 1570, 
et fiit ensepultm-e le mesme jour." The death-entries number not more than 
four or five tunes per annum for the first fifteen years, except in 1573, when 
there are nine, five of which are marked "passant" and "non de I'eglise," 
with farther notice, in some cases, that they were "mis aux depens des 
poures," or wayfarers kept by public charity. The bmial of these poor took 
place nearly always the same day, and that of others the day after death. 
The place of nativity is very seldom given in the earlier entries, down to the 
middle of the seventeenth centui-y. 

There are long lists of the dead, giving nothing more than the names, which 
were apparently entered in a batch ; the words "fut enterre le mesme jom-" 
occur very frequently and regularly after the year 1600, when the first signs 
of the ravages of the plague became strongly visible. In 1604 long strings 
of names are followed by "peste, "the entries throughout being of the short- 



''GOD'S HOUSE" SOUTHAMPTON. 



est, such as " Catharine Martin mourut le 30 A oust — peste," and " Pierre fils 
de Pierre Geulin mourut le jour susdit — peste." In the year 1604, 161 per- 
sons are set down as having died of the plague, the number amounting at 
times, in August and September, to four and five a day. In April, 1605, there 
is " non-peste" after a name; but no farther deaths are entered during the 
remainder of the year. 

The first entry in 1617 is " Phillippe de la Motte, ministre de la parole de 
Dieu mourut le 6 de May et fust en tei-re le mesme jour en compaignie de 
tout le magistrat." There ai-e but three deaths on the average of the years 
1617-65, at which latter date the word "peste" again makes its appearance 
after the names. From the 15th of July, when the word first occurs, till the 
end of the year 1665, twenty-three deaths from the plague are recorded. One 
more person died of the plague in August, 1666, after which there stands 
"non-peste" to a name. The entries henceforth decrease farther in num- 
ber, and greatly change in phi*aseology. The old form is " Guillaume Man- 
sell trespassa le 26 de Auril au matin et fut mis en terre le mesme jour sm* 
le soir ;" while the entries after the great plague year of 1665 are mostly as 
foUows : " Le sieur Mathieu Brohier fran9ois refiigie est mort le 29 de Juin 
est enterre' le 30." The following entry occurs in 1661 : " Ce grand Servi-^ 
teur de Dieu, Paul Mercier, deceda le 22™^ d'Aoust, estant vendredi,et fut en- 
sepultre dedans cette Eglize le Lundy ensuyvant. Iceluy estant un des grand 
PiUiers de cette Eglise et plaine d'aumosne." 

There are no entries of any particular interest during the whole of the sev- 
enteenth century; the names are nearly all French, and the description 
" refugie" verj' frequently accompanies the name. From 1700 tiH 1712 there 
are but tMrty-four deaths entered, and only one in 1713. The latter is of 
imusual length, as follows : " Demoiselle Antoinete de Ginesse de la -sille de 
Puitam-ens en Languedoc et femme du sieur Antoine Cougot, docteur en 
medicine, Recteur de Millbrook et ministre de cette Eglise, est morte le 21 
May, 1713, et a ete enten-e le 25^ dans I'eglise de la Toussaint proche la ta- 
ble de la communion." There is no death entered in 1714, and but one ia 
1715, running, "Monsieur Samuel Domam, gentilhomme refugie', ne a Alen- 
9on est mort le 17 Jmllet et enterre le 19«." 

In 1721 we find the following obituary notice filling nearly half a page : 
"Monsieur Philibert d'Hervart, baron d'Hunniggen, fran^ais refugie, mourut 
en cette ville le 30 Avril, 1721, age de 46 ans et fut enterre dans I'eglise pa- 
roissiale d'Holirood, aupres de M. Fre'deric d'Hervart son fils, le mercredi sui- 
vant, son corps etant conduit a la sepulture par tous les ministres fran^ois et 
anglois de cette ville et de St. Mary, et par une grande multitude de fran9ois 
et d'anglois. Sous le regne de Guillaume troisieme il fut envoye extraordi- 
naire a Geneve, en Suisse, et s'etant retire de cette ville il a laisse des mar- 
ques de sa grande charite pour les pauvres en laissant a cette eglise un billet 
de £32 sterling, plus tard encore £50 sterling ; aussy bien que de son zele 
pour la gloire de Dieu en laissant pour I'entretien du ministere de cette eglise 
la somme de 12 livres sterling de rentes. II avoir donne' il y a environ 8 mois 
quatre mille livres sterling a I'hopital des fran9ois refugies a Londres, vulgaire- 
ment appeUe la Providence. Les pauvres des deux nations fran9oise et an- , 
gliose perdent beaucoup a sa mort. Du veuille avoir pitie d'eux, a leur susci- 
ter des personnes aussy charitables." 



378 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

This entiy is followed b}'- another of some interest. It is : "Monsieur An- 
toine Cougot, cy-devant ministre de cette e'glise mourut en cette ville le 14 de 
May, 1721, et fat enten-e le Mercredy suivant dans I'egHse paroissiale deRIill- 
brook dont il e'toit recteui- ; il avoit soxyi cette e'ghse avec e'dification pendant 
30 ans. " There ai-e two more entries after this, the one stating the decease 
of" damoiselle la Cinice du Terme, fille de Monsieiu* le Colonnel du Teiine," 
in August, 1721, and the other that of "Monsieur Fran9ois du Eom-e'," in 
March, 1722. Here the death-register ends. 

After an intervening space of tliirty blanlc leaves, another, and exceedingly 
interesting series of entries commences, specifying the Fasts and Thanksgiv- 
ings held at the church of" God's House." The heading of these entries is 
"Les jeusnes publicques quy se sont fectes en ceste Eglise Centre les tamps 
d'afliction selon la Coustume des Eghses de Dieu. " The fasts, numbered in 
chronological order, extend from 1568 tiU the year 1667, or exactly a centu- 
ry. There are altogether sixty-eight "jeusnes," besides three thanksgiv- 
ings, or " actions de gi-aces," all of them containing reflections on contempo- 
raiy events. 

The first entry is as follows : " Lan 15G8, le 3® jour de Setembre fut cele- 
bre le jeusne publicque, I'ocasion estoit que Monsigneur le Prince d'oreng de- 
scendoit dalemaigne aux paiis bas pom- assaie, avec I'aide de Dieu de delivres 
les poures eglises dafliction, or pour prier plus ardament le Seiguem- a la de- 
livrauce de son peuple le jeusne fut celebre." 

The second entry is as foUows : "Lan 1570. Au 6^ jour de May fut cel- 
ebre le jeusne, I'ocasion estait que Monsieur le prince de Conde et Autres 
priuces de la france estantes en guerre pour maintenii- la vi-ai rehgion que le 
Eoy voulait abolir, perdirent une grose bataille, de quoi toutes les Eglises se 
seroient fort desolees en pro chaines de calamite extreme. A cette cause on 
celebra le jeusne pom- prier pour eux." 

The thu'd entiy runs: "Lan 1572. Le 25 jour le Setembre fut celebre 
une jeusne publique, la raison estoit pour ce que Monsiem* le Prince d'orenge 
estait venu aux paiis bas avec nouvelle armee dalemaigne pour asaier a deliv- 
rer le pais e les pauvres eglises hors de la main du due d'Albe ce cruel tu'an, 
et aussi principallement pour ce que les eghses de la Prance estoient en une 
mei-veilleuse et honible calamite extreme. Une honible massacre avoit este 
fait a paris le 24 jour daout passe, un grand nombre de nobles et de fidelles 
furent tues en une nuit, environ de 12 ou 13 milles, la Presche deffendu par 
tout le roiamne et tons les biens des fidelles piUes par tout le roiaume, or pour 
la consollation d'eux et des paix bas, et pour prier le Seignem* a lem- deliv- 
rance fat celebre ce jeusne solemmel." 

The next six "jeusnes," numbered 4 to 10 (1574-5), were held to pray for 
the " pauvres eglises" of Prance and Holland ; also for preservation against 
the plague. The next after this, marked 11, is as follows: "Le vingt et 
neuvieme d'aout 1576 fut celebre un jeusne pubhc en ceste eglise priant Dieu 
de maintenir la maieste de la Reine en bone Amitie et acord avec M. le prince 
d'orenge, a la gloire de dieu et au salut et consei-vation des eglises." 

The next, the 12th entry, runs: "Le 22 Novembre, 1576, le jeusne fut 
celebre en ceste eghse et ce mesme jom- aussi en firent autant toutes les eglises 
des estrangers refugiez en angleterre. Priant dieu pour la conservation des 



" GOD'S house;' SOUTHAMPTON. 379 

eglises de Prance quy se voient menachees et pour la delivi-ance plainiere de 
celles des pais de flandi-es et pour la consolassion des paures fideUes quy out 
recu grand afiiction a la destruction de la Ville d'anvers que respaguol a de- 
truicte le 4^ du present, et pour prier le Seigneur leui- tenir la bride afin quy 
u'aillent point plus ontre afligat le peuple." 

The ISth entry runs : " Au mois de feburier mil cine cens septante et sept, 
le 4^ jour fiit celebre un jeusne public aves toutes les eglises estrangeres quy 
sent en Angleterre priant dieu pour les eglises quy sont en la france et flan- 
dres a ce quelles furent gardees cotre les menees qu'on etendait que I'ennemy 
feisoit poui-les grener en rompant la paix." 

The 14th fast relates to the war in the Netherlands, prayers being directed 
against the progress of the " frere bastard du Roy d'espaine." The loth en- 
try is to the same eifect : " Pour cause que Dom Jan d'austrice avait une 
grosse armee au paiis de brabat." The 16th fast, dated March 30, 1579, hkc- 
wise relates to the wai* in the Netherlands — "I'espagnol gouveme par le 
prince de panne" being prayed against. The 17th entiy runs: "Le 23« 
Juilet, 1579, fat celebre le jeusne Apres la prinse de Mastrik par les espag- 
nols priant dieu avoir pitie de son eglise des paiis bas, ou les afFeiTes sont a 
present en horrible confusion, et aussy priat a dieu. que les eglises en le paiis 
ne soient troublees par la venue du due d'alencon de laquelle on parle beau- 
coup." [Duke d'Alen^on, favored suitor of Queen Elizabeth.] 

The next fast, the 18th, relates to an earthquake in England and France, 
as follows : "Le 28 d'Am'il, 1580, le jeusne fut celebre pour prier dieu nous 
garder contre son ire quy le 6 de ce mois nous avoit este monstre' par un grand 
tremblemet de terre quy a este non seulemet en tout ce Roiaume mes aussy 
Picardie et les paiis bas de la flandres. comme pom* garder de guerre, de peste, 
et pour preserver les pauvres eglises de flandres e france des effors de leurs 
enemis quy requilloient leurs forces avec une grant armee d'espagne pour les 
tenir affailUr." 

The 19tli fast relates to the great comet of 1581. The entry runs : "Le 
6^ d'Am'il, 1581, le jeusne fiit celebre pour prier dieu nous garder cotre les ef 
fets des signes de son ire dequoy avons este menachee en la Commette quy 
s'est conunencee a monstrer le 8 d'octobre et a duree jusques au 12 decebre. 
puis aussi coti-e les grands changements et ressolutions aparentes en.pais de 
flandres et aillem"s par de la, afin que de sa gi-ace. H luy pleut tout tom-ner 
a bien pom- le profit de son eglise." 

The 20th fast (January 25, 1852) relates again to the waa* in the Nether- 
lands — "pour prier pom* les eglises de flandi*es quo I'on voisit en grant con- 
fusion et afliction." Very similar is the entry of the 21st fast, dated 28th of 
February, 1583, held " pom* prier dieu d'avoir pitie de ses eglises quy sont en 
la flandres." 

The entry of the 22d fast runs : "Le 12 Septebre, 1583, Le jusne public 
fut celebre en priant dieu pour les pauvres eglises, premierement pom- ceUes 
en la france quy sont en grande Menace d'affliction pour guerres. celles de 
flandres sont affliges par les espagnols et Malcontens quy gattent la flandres et 
remettent la papauti et idolatrie por toutes les villes quy prennent, et en 
troisieme lieu pour ceste eglise ici en ceste ville quy passe 5 ou 6 mois a este 
affligee de peste de la en est morte en ceste eglise environ 50 personnes et en 



380 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

ceste ville environ 400 et continue encore rafliction, le seigneur la veuille faire 
cesser bientost et ici.et ailleurs aussi." 

The 23d fast again relates to the doings in Flanders — " les horribles guerres 
des espagnols et malcontents." The next four entries, fasts 24 to 28, are still 
concerning the wai's in France and the Netherlands, and other great troubles, 
"desquels I'Eglise de dieu estoit menacee." 

Between the 29th and 30th fasts there is an entiy of thanksgi\ing concern- 
ing the great Armada of Spain. The entiy is as follows : "Actions de graces, 
le 29« de Novebre, 1588. graces furet rendues publiquement an Seigneur 
pom* la dissipation estrange de la flotte d'Espagne quy s'estoit rendue aux 
costes d'Angleterre pern* conquester ledit rojaume et le remettre sous la ty- 
rannic du Pape." The 30th fast reflects upon the previous thanksgiving. 
The entry runs : " Le 5 de Decebre, 1588, le jeusne public fut celebre aiin de 
prier le Seigneur qu'il luy plaise donner aux Eglises de france et de flandres 
semblable deli\Tance come celle de laquele il est cidessus fait mention." 

The next entry is as follows : "Le 19^ jour de May, 1589, le jeusne fut 
publis en noctre assembles pour le celebrer le 22 du mesme mois pour prier le 
Seignem* qu'il lui plaise benir I'ai-mee navale de la Serenissime Elizabeth roine 
d'Angleteixe quy avoit fait voile cotre I'espagnol. Item pour supplier qu'il lui 
plaise aussi doner paix hem-euse aux egKses de france et de flandres." 

The 32d fast relates to the change of dynasty in France. The entry runs : 
"Le 21 d'Aout, 1589, le jusne publique fut celebre en ceste Eglise de Hamp- 
tone come par toutes les Eglises estrangeres de ce royaume pour les troubles 
et remuements de la france a cause du transport de la couronne en la maison 
de Boui'bon et les maux dequels I'Eglise estoit mena9ee, a cette fin que I'ire 
de Dieu estant appaisee il se montra favorable a I'Eglise." 

This fast is followed by another thanksgiving registered as follows : "Le 
20 de Mars, 1590, graces furent publiquement rendues au Seigneur pour la 
Victoire signalee que le Eoy de France et de Navarre a obtenue par le faveur 
de I'Eternal des annexes sui* ses enemis le 14 de Mars stil nouveau aupres da 
village nomme St. Andre. " Tlie 33d and 34th fasts relate to the state of 
affairs in France, and the struggle of the new king to maintain both the Re- 
formed reUgion and his crown, " choses que n'estoient point sans grandes dif- 
ficultes." 

The entiy of the 34th fast is followed by a note recording a visit of Queen 
Elizabeth to Southampton. The note i-uns: "Le 4 de Septebre, 1591, la 
Serenissime Elizabeth Roine d'Angleten-e vint a Hamptone avec toute sa court 
quy estoit tres grande et partit le 7« dudit mois envers le midi, et come eUe 
partoit et estoit hors de la viUe, n'ayans peut avou' acces vers sa Majeste en 
la ville, la remerciasmes de ce que passe vingt quatre ans avoit este nous main- 
tenus en ceste ville en tranqmllite e repos, EUe repondit fort humainement 
louant Dieu de ce qu'U luy avoit donne puissance de recueillir et faire bien 
aux poures estrangers." 

The entries of the six fasts numbered 35-40 relate to the v^ars in France 
and the Netherlands, with prayers against "les nouveaux appareils du Due 
de Parme cotre le Roy." The 41st fast speaks about a general dearth of 
food in England. The entry is; "Le 12 de Janvier, 1597, le jeusne pu- 
blique ftit celebre en cette eglise a cause de la cherete horrible par tout ce roy- 



''GOD'S house;' SOUTHAMPTON. ' 3S1 

aume de bles pax la longue continuation des plages quy a gate la moisson et 
la semaille." The 4:2d fast relates to the assistance given by Queen Eliza- 
beth to Henry IV. The entry runs : " Le 25 de Juliette, 1597, le jusne pub- 
lique fut celebre en ceste Eglise come anssi en les autres Eglises estrangeres 
pour prier le Seigneur qu'il luy plaite doner bons succes a rannee de lay 
Eoyne." The next two entries are on the same subject, the fasts being 
' ' pour invocquer ai'dament TEtemel qu'il luy plaise benir les armes de la 
Eoine en Irlande cotre les rebelles fomantez pax I'espagnol." 

The 45th entiy runs : "Le jeusne fut celebre en ceste eglise le 25'^ Aout, 
1599, par ad\is de la Compagnie, pour les bruits de guerre et apprehensions 
d'une flotte d'Espagne et autres remuements quy parassoient alors, afin d'in- 
dtiii-e le peuple a serieuse conversion au Seigneur." The nest two entries re- 
late again to the war in the Netherlands, notably "une bataille fort furieuse 
entre le comto Maurice et I'Archiduc." % 

In the 48th entry reference is made to a new outbreak of the plague, as 
follows ; "Le jusne public fut celebre particulierement en ceste eglise le 8^ 
tie Feburier, 1604, a raison de la maladie cotagieuse de laquele nos estions 
menacez, Dieu ayant visite quelques deux a trois families en ceste viUe de 
cotagio." The 49th fast relates to the affairs of Flanders, and again to the 
plague : " Le jusne pubhcque fut celebre en ceste Eglise le 24^ de May, 1 604, 
come aussy aux autres Eglises de la langue fran9oise en ce royaume, tant a 
raison de I'estat de Elandres, le conte Maurice assiegant I'Escluse et s'effor9ant 
de faire lever le siege de Ostende assiegee par I'Archiduc d'Autriche ; que pour 
I'Estat de ce pays, le parlement sestenant e reeluy, aussi pour les verges de 
grand chastiement de peste que Dieu monstroite a Londres et autres endroits 
du royaume, et outre tout cela pour ce qu'en nostre Eglise nos estions apres 
la confirmation et instalation du firere Timothee Blier au Saint Ministere de 
I'Evangile." 

The next entry still refers to the plague. It runs : " Le jusne public fut 
celebre en ceste eglise le 11^ de Juliette, 1604, a raison de la maladie cota- 
gieuse laquele estoit bien aflfi-euse au milieu de ceste Eepublique et de nostre 
eghse." 

The next is an entry of thanksgiving for the cessation of the plague, as fol- 
lows: "Le IG de Janvier, 1605, actions de gi-aces publiques et solennelles 
furet rendues au Seigneur particulierement en nostre eglise de ce qu'il avoit 
pleu a Dieu de faire cesser le grand fleau de peste tant en nostre Assemblee 
qu'en la Eepublique de ceste viUe." 

The 51st fast is entered : "Le 30 May, 1605, le jeusne ftit celebre en ceste 
Eglise come aussy en les autres Eglises estrangeres recueiUis en ce royaume 
pour invocquer plus ardament le Seigneur pour la prosperite de cest Estat, et 
pour les estats de HoUande et autres provinces Unies qu'il plaise a Dieu benir 
leurs armes k sa gloire et au bien de toute son Eghse." 

The 52d fast again refers to the plague. The entry runs : " Le 22^ d'Oc- 
tobre, 1606, le jusne publique fut cdebre en ceste Eglise come le jour suivant 
lL fust aux Eglises estrangeres recueOHes en ce royaume a cette fin de prier le 
Seigneur a ce qu'il appaisat" son ire embraze'e cotre les freres de Londres les- 
quels U visitoit de grand fleau de peste, et semblablement" pour le supplier 
d'accompagner les armees de Messeigneurs les Estats des Provinces Unies de 



382 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

ses favem-s accoustumees reprimant les gloires et triomphes profanes des en- 
nemis de la verite. " 

The 53d fast, occurring after an intei-val of eight years, refers, for the first 
time, to the Protestants of Germany. The entry is as follows : "Le 14 de 
Sept., 1614, le jeusne fut celebre' en cette Eglise au mesme jom- que les autres 
estrangeres de ce royaume pour prier le Seignem- de dissiper les enterprises de 
I'emperem- et du Pape et leui-s confederes s'efforcants de rniner les Eglises de 
I'AUemagne, et benir au contraii-e les armes de ceux qu'il suscitoit pour la 
consenration de son Eglise." 

The 54th fast has reference to France, as follows : " Le 16 de November, 
1615. Le jeusne fust celebre en ceste EgHse an mesme jour qu'en autres 
estrangeres de ce royaume a cause des troubles de la Prance et pom* prier le 
Seigneur de conserver son Eglise a I'encontre de touts les attentats des enne- 
mis de sa verite." The next two entries relate to the affairs of the Nether- 
lands, notably "less troubles qui incommodent les Eglises des Provinces 
Unies." These "troubles" are more pointedly alluded to in the 57th fast, as 
follows: "Le 28 de Septembre, 1620. Le jusne fut encor celebre en ceste 
Eglise come en auti'es Eglises esti'angeres en ce Eoyaume en consideration du 
Synode de divers pays qui estoit assemble en Holland pour appaiser les trou- 
bles qui incommodoyent les Eglises des Pro\inces Unies." 

The next entry principally refers to events in Prance: "Le 21 de Juin, 
1621. Le jusne fut encor celebre en ceste eglise comme en autres Eglises 
estrangeres de ce Eoyamrie en consideration des fascheux traittements qui 
sont faicts a ceux qui font profession de la mesme religion que nous en France 
et ailleurs." In the 59 th and 60th fasts reference is made to the afflictions of 
the Protestant chm-ches in Holland and in the German Palatinate. 

The next entiy, of the Gist fast, has once more reference to the plague: 
"Le 27 de Juillet, 1G25. Ceste Eglise se joignit a celebrer le jusne public 
avec I'eglise Angloise tons les Mercredis selon le conmiandement du Roy en 
consideration de la peste ayant commence a Londres et menassant tout le 
royaume." 

The entry of the 62d fast runs: "Le second jour d'Aoust, 1626. Ceste 
Eglise se joignit encor a celebrer le jusne pubhque avec I'Eghse Angloise selon 
le commandement du Roy en consideration des dangers qui menassent ce 
royaume." The next entiy has relation to the state of the Continental for- 
eign churches, "I'afiiiction que souffrent les Eglises d'outre mer." 

The deliberations of the English Pai-liament are referred to in the next 
fast, the 64th, as follows : " Le 21 d'Am-il, 1628. Ceste Eglise se joingnit a 
celebrer le jusne publiq avec I'Eglise Angloise selon le commandement du Roy 
en consideration des dangers qui menasent ce royaume et pour prier Dieu 
qu'il face reussir a bien les deliberations du Parlement qui est assemble." A 
fast to the same effect was held eleven months after. The entiy mns : " Le 
20 de Mars, 1629. Ceste Eglise se joignit encore avec I'Eglise Angloise pour 
celebrer un jusne publique par le commandement du Roy a mesme considera- 
tion que le precedent." 

The fresh appearance of the plague is refeired to in the next, the 66th, fast, 
held after an interval of thii-ty-six years : "Le 6 de Decembre, 1665. Le 
jusne fut celebre en ceste EgHse noste viUe estant affiige de la peste les 5 



FRENCH CHURCH, CANTERBURY. 383 

mois passe estant mort de nostre petitt troupeau yiron 20 personnes et des 
Englais 800. Le Seigneur voile bien Arrester cette vissitation et issy et ail- 
leurs." 

The next entry relates to the gi-eat fire of London. It is as foUows : " Le 
10 d'Octobre, 1666. Le jusne fut celebre en ceste Eglize par le commande- 
ment du Roy come aussy en toutes les Eglizes Engloizes poui- prier le Seign- 
eur d'appaiser son Ire et rester ses jugemens maintenant repandu sui- ce Eoy- 
aume la \Tlle (capitale) de Londi-es estant la plus grande partie consume par 
le feu." 

In the 68th fast (June 19th, 1667), the last of the regular entries, prayers 
are offered for "notre roi et sa gloire," the occasion being "Monsieur Cou- 
raud notre Pasteur nous y ayant puissamment exhortez par ses predications." 

After this fast the numbered entries cease ; but there is a short appendix 
on the following page refening to two more " jeusnes" held on the 16th of 
December, 1720, and the 8th of December, 1721. Both took place, it is 
stated, "par ordre de sa majeste et de monseigneur notre evesque," the 
prayers being directed " pour preserver le royaume de la guerre." 

At the end of the book, forming the conclusion of the records of the South- 
ampton " God's House," ai-e five entries, headed "Livi-e pom- les afeiTes sm*- 
venates en ceste Eglise." The entries chiefly relate to the collection of cer- 
tain funds for the education of the children of the poorer members of the 
church. It was resolved, on the 19th of July, 1584, that " de trois mois en 
trois mois les anciens et diacres iront de maison en maison potu: recuiller les 
deniers que chacun voudi-a doner." It appears fi'om several of these entries 
that general assemblies were held, at stated times, of the heads of families, or 
"chefs de famille," of the Prench Protestant churches of Jersey, Guernsey, 
Aldei-ney, and Sai-k, united with the congregation of " God's House. " Among 
the names which most frequently occur in the register, we observe those of 
Guillaumott, Page, Baillehache, Barnouin, Cupin, Mariette, Teulin, Bauc- 
quart, Le Vasseur, Le Febure, Vincent, De la Motte, Prevost, Seqidn, Durant, 
Hervieu, De Lean, De la Place, Sauvage, Dm-and, Duval, and Dupre'. 

French Protestant or Walloon Church, Canterhury. 

These registers form nine volmnes, or ten parts. The first two parts, 
bound in one volume — a long, thin, narrow octavo, the paper yellow with age, 
and the ink of rusty red — contains entries of baptisms, marriages, and deaths 
from the year 1583 to 1630. There are evidently many leaves wanting, par- 
ticularly in the earlier portion. The entries commence in May, 1583, Avitli 

" Le 5 fut celebre le marriage de Herbert (family name illegible) a 

IMarrie Du Mourrier." There are six marriages entered in May, 1583 ; four 
in June, fom- in July, two in August, none in September, four in October, one 
in November, and two in December. Nine more marriages are entered from 
Januaiy to June, 1584 ; then these cease, and entries of baptisms commence 
— the first under date of October, 1583, as foUows : "Le 8 fut baptise I'en- 
fant de Antoine Du Bois appelle Jay," followed by the names of the godfa- 
thers and godmothers. There are twenty-one entries of births from October 
8 to the end of the year 1 583, and twenty-three from the 5th of January to 
the 5th of October, 1584, when they come to an end. 



384 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

After two blank leaves, there now come entries of deaths, beginning with 
the year 1581, as follows : " Le 2,1^ de Juin movu-ut May Dulour, femme de 

" (name illegible). There ai-e forty-one death-entries in 1581, but 

most of them e%idently made some time after the event occurred, less than a 
line being given to each, and the whole in a sort of tabulated form. Bap- 
tisms, marriages, and deaths, in very irregular order, fill up the rest of the 
first volume. There are no features worth noticing, save tLe general fact 
that the names ai-e chiefly Hebrew, such as Abraham, Daniel, and Mary ; but 
a veiy large proportion of the girls have the name Elizabeth given to them 
in baptism, doubtless after that of the English queen. 

The second volume commences with the year 1630, and ends with 1715. 
The entries are all of deaths. The volume is in a most dilapidated state, the 
paper dark brown with age, the ink deep red, and many of the leaves moth- 
eaten and half-torn. A great many Dutch names occui- in this volume, and 
there are frequent entities of the fact of a gravestone ha^dng been made for the 
deceased. The foUowing is a specimen : "Jean Jacob Yanderfleet, Doctem* 
en Medecine, mourut le 3"^ jour de Febm-ier, 163^ en Londres, apres avok 
este taille de la pierre." Many names are entered of persons dying at distant 
places in England and France, and even in the West Indies. The entries are 
very irregular ; often a hundred seem to have been made at the same time, 
in a tabulated foim. 

A cm-ious entiy, throwing considerable light upon these irregularities, oc- 
curs in 1649. After "Le 6* Auril, 1649, mourut Charle Benoit," are fom- 
lines as follows : "Les joui-s de incroyable troubles advenu par Pouiade ^ sa 
faction en la rupture e descu'ement de I'eglise le Eegistre este quelque temps 
dilaiex a este redraisse le mieux la memoii'e la pen porter. " The death-en- 
tries after these words sum up the yeai's 1645-9 ; they are very short and 
clearly imperfect ; the name Pouiade is not any where to be met with. 

The internal distm-bances of the chm-ch appear to have continued till 1715, 
for the lists are not only most irregular, but seemingly made by an inexperi- 
enced hand. The last entry in vol. ii. runs : "Le 27'' October, 1715, mou- 
rout Habraham Hibau, agie de 57." The Hebrew names of baptism cease 
to a great extent in this volume, Jean and Jacques being the most com- 
mon. 

The third volume of the Canterbury records is the first that is tolerably 
perfect. It contains both baptisms and marriages. The fly-leaf on the front 
is inscribed " Livre des Baptesmes de I'eglise Valone de Cantorbeiy depuis le 
XXnn. de Jiullet, 1590, jusquau 15'' de Mars, 1602." The following is the 
first entry of baptism : " Susanne fiUe de Daniel Veron fust presentee au 
Baptisme ayant pom- tesmoings Josse des Rousseaux et Joseph de Sevart, 
item Anne femme de Loys Theuclin et Pasquette femme de Michel Aman." 
AU the other entries are similar, but the names of witnesses are not always 
given. At the end of the year 1592 is the following entry : " Ce sont ceux 
qui ont este par le St. Baptesme mise en I'AIiance de Dieu en I'Eglise de Can- 
torbeiy en I'An 1592." 

The number of children entered as baptized in 1591 is 119 ; while in the 
following year, 1592, it amounts to 148 ; in 1593, to 141 ; in 1594, to 132 ; 
in 1595, to 136 ; in 1596, to 107 ; in 1597, to 91 ; in 1598, to 72 ; in 1599, 



FRENCH CHURCH, CANTERBURY. 385 

to exactly 100 ; in 1600, to 106 ; in ]601, to e^S ; and in 1602, to only 22, as 
far as the 15th. of April. Here the entries of bh-ths cease. 

The entries of marriages, at the other side of the volume, appear less com- 
plete than those of baptism. There are 27 maniages entered in 1591 ; 30 in 
1592 ; 29 in 1593 ; 39 in 1594 ; 25 in 1595 ; 31 in 1596 ; 19 in 1597 ; 25 in 
1598; 22 in 1599; 18 in 1600; 15 in 1601; and only 4= in the first fom- 
months of 1602 — on January 24, Febniary 14, March 14, and Apiil 12. Here 
the entries of the third volume cease, a blank page being left in the middle of 
the book between the baptisms and marriages. 

Neither the baptismal nor the marriage entries of this volume contain any 
thing specially noteworthy beyond the fact that the settlers mostly intermar- 
ried. The following is a specimen of the mamage-entries : "Andrea Du 
Porest filz de Roger natif de Conty en Picardie et Marie Huchon fille de 
Adam natif de Armentieres." There are an extraordinary number of wid- 
ows ; in some years they form neaiiy one thu-d of the whole entered in the 
marriage-lists. Widowers also are numerous. 

The fom*th volume of the Canterbury records is similar in arrangement to 
the thu'd, the baptisms being entered on one side and the marriages on the 
other. There are^o deaths either in this or the preceding volume. The 
entries of baptisms commence on the 18th of April, 1602, and end December 
30, 1621. There ai-e 40 baptisms entered in (the 8^ months of) 1602 ; 77 in 
1603 ; 65 in 1604 ; 66 in 1605 ; 81 in 1606 ; 82 in'l607; 69 in 1608 ; 59 in 
1609 ; 69 in 1610 ; 65 in 1611 ; 63 in 1612 ; 58 in 1613 ; 63 in 1614 ; 69 in 
1615; 56 in 1616; 61 in 1617; and 59 in 1618. Dm-ing the next three 
years the entries are veiy confused, large numbers being evidently made at 
the same time. 

The mamage-entries, on the other side of the book, run from 1602 to 1620, 
and average about 21a year. Most of the women of this period entered as 
married seem to have been of the second generation of settlers, "natif de 
Cantorbery." The following is a specimen of the form of most of the mar- 
riage-entries : "Le 5'de Am'il Nicolas de Sentluns filz de feu Estienne natif 
da Cambray et Anthoinette de Naux, fille de Jacques natife de Cantorbery. " 
It appears there were also, now and then, marriages of daughters of the set- 
tlement with Englishmen ; two occur in June, 1608, of George Lowe with 
Marie Cole'e, and John Chandler with Judith Eousset, both marked as 
"maiies entre les Anglais." .Unions where the bride is English are veiy 
rare. One specially marked as such is " Jehan Parmentier veuf et une An- 
glaise Jane Bachelar veufe de feu Eegnant natif de Cantorbery." 

The fifth volume, similar in arrangement to the preceding, contains bap- 
tisms and marriages from 1622 to 1644. There are 5G entries of baptisms in 
1622 ; 50 in 1623 ; 54 in 1624 ; 72 in 1625 ; 72 in 1626 ; 81 in 1627 ; 98 in 
1628 ; 81 in 1629 ; 110 in 1630 ; 100 in 1631 ; 101 in 1633 ; 124 m 1633 ; 
85 in 1634 ; and 75 in 1635. For the remaining years, till 1*644, the entries 
of baptisms ai*e somewhat irregular, averaging from 70 to SO per annum. 
The marriages entered during the period 1622 to 1644 average about 23 per 
annum. There is scarcely any influx of strangers visible during, the period, 
both bride and bridegroom being set down, in nearly all cases, as "natifs de 
Cantorbery." The forms of entiy are precisely the same as those in vol. iv.. 

Bb 



3SG REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

Notes of any other kind are not to be found, nor any featiu-es of special in- 
terest.- 

The sixth volume— a thick 8vo of above 400 pages — is almost enth-ely filled 
with entries of baptisms, there being only nine pages devoted to marriages at 
the end of the book— reversed. The baptisms extend from 1 G-U to 170-t, and 
the marriages — most incomplete and fragmentary — from 1644 to 1G6G, with 
four more in 1672, 73, 74, and 75. Both baptisms and marriages were evi- 
dently entered long after the actual event, by the hundi-ed. The baptisms, 
for the greater part of the period, do not average more than 50 per annum, 
and for many years they are considerably less, though the evident imperfec- 
tion of the entries leaves little room for calculation. There are no entries of 
any particular interest. Many of them ai-e by an illiterate, hand, and a few 
seem to be made by a boy or girl, intermixed with scrawls and various orna- 
ments. English names are becoming very numerous, and fi-equently the 
names are given double, in French and English, as " Le Munier or Miller." 
This is repeated several times, till, in the end, an entry runs simply " MiUer," 
and another " Mellor." Of the baptisms registered in 1675 there are 34 boys 
and 34 girls ; about one half the boys have the names '^' Jean," "Jacques," 
or "Pierre ;" while more than one thu'd of the girls are called " Marie." 

At the end of the year 1G83 the registrar of baptisms signs his name for 
the first time : " Enregistre Abraham Didier." The entries of this year ap- 
pear very complete ; there are 46 boys and 31 girls. The few pages of mar- 
riages show that the immigration from other parts into the colony had nearly 
ceased at this period ; almost the whole of the brides, as well as bridegrooms, 
are entered as "natifs de Canterbmy." There are no entries of special in- 
terest. 

The seventh volume consists of a number of loose leaves, not stitched to- 
gether, or fastened in any way, but merely stuck into a leather case. The 
leaves, not quite 200, contain only entries of marriages and of banns of mar- 
riage, ranging from 1644 to 1704, Most of the leaves have suifered greatly 
from the ravages of time, but the entries ai-e in a remarkably fine handwiiting. 
The form is throughout as follows : " Le 16' Avril" (year not given), ' ' Jacques 
Villers, fils d'Arnould, natif de Cantorbery et Marie Eeri-e fille de Vincent, 
native de Cantorbery." The banns run : "II y a promesse de mariage entre 
Gedeon Despaigne fils de Jean natif de Canterbmy, et Marie Le Leu fille de 
feu Jean natife de Canterbmy." Often there are three strokes (either iii or 
-ff. or 4=) against the entry of the banns, to denote that they have been pro- 
claimed three times, in which cases an appendix is not uncommon, such as 
"Es ont este marie en I'eghse WaHonne de Cantorbery le 7' du December." 

Owing to the scattered condition of the leaves — not chronologically ar- 
ranged — it is impossible to say over what yeai's the entries in this volume ex- 
tend; from various dates, here and there, the period 3.644 to 1704 seems 
probable, maldng it appear that this was a supijlementaiy volume to the one 
previously noticed. Entries of special interest are wanting. 

The eighth volume is a stout folio, not half filled, bound in thick parchment 
and well presented. It contains only entries of baptisms ranging from 1704 
to 1837. The number of entries for the first fifteen years average about 30, 
but they gradually d^vindle down until they cease with the fiimily of Monsieur 



MALT-HOUSE CHAPEL, CANTERBURY. 387 

!Miette, pastor of the "■Walloon Churcli," who appears as the last procreative 
member of the colony. 

On the inside of the cover of this volume are some references to books re- 
lating to the settlement. They are : " The Undercroft of Canterbmy Cathe- 
dral given to the Walloons, liJGS ; see Kentish Covipanion, 1787 — to 18 fam- 
ilies of Walloons by 2 Ehz. ; see Duncombe descrip. Catk. 5Q, and pag. 5th ; 
under the choir is a spacious church granted in the time of 2 Eliz. to 18 fam- 
ilies of French refugees, and used by then- descendants ever since. Conunit- 
tee or Koyal Bounty first granted to the Prench refugees 1695 ; see TinduWs 
contin. Rapin, page 258 n., edit, octavo." 

The ninth and last volume of the Canterbuiy Records is a small and very 
thin quarto, "Nvith four pages of marriage-entries on the one side, and eight 
pages of banns on the other. They extend over the time 1719 to 1747, and 
are exceedingly imperfect. There ai*e no maniages entered betvreen 1720 and 
1736, which is the last in the list. The banns go to 1747. There are no en- 
tries of any interest in this little volume. Against the fly-leaf of the third 
volume of the Canterbury Registers is pasted the following " Certificate :" 

"The annexed or accompanying books are the original Register-books of 
maiTiages and baptisms which have been kept for the Chapel or Meeting-house 
called the Walloon Congregation or French Protestant Church, situate in the 
Undercroft of Canterbury Cathedral, in the county of Kent, founded about 
the year 1568. The books have been from time to time in the custody of the 
scribe of the Elders, for the time being, of the Congregation, and are sent to 
the commissioners from the immediate custody of the minister of the said 
chm'ch in the Undercroft of said Cathedral, who has kept them since 1834 as 
minister of the Congregation. Signed the 12th of Sept., 1837. J. F. Mi^viUe, 
minister; Chas. N. Miette, elder; M. T. Miette, deacon." 

Malt-House, Cliapd^ Canterbury. 

These registers, which are in a large, thin folio of about thirty pages, are 
described in the official " ceitificate" annexed to the book as follows : "The 
original Register-book of man-iages and baptisms of the Conformist French 
Chapel, commonly called the 'Malt-House,' being of the Episcopal Chm-ch 
denomination, situate in the precincts of Canterbmy Cathedral, in the county 
of Kent, founded about the year . . . (1709), and now dissolved. The book 
has been from time to time in the custody of the scribe for the time being, 
and is sent to the commissioners from the same persons who held the regis- 
ters of the Walloon Congregation of the Cathedral Undercroft, in the city of 
Canterbury, who kept it since 1817. Signed the 12th of September, 1837. 
J. F. Mieville, minister ; Charles N. Miette, elder." 

There are not more than thirty entries of baptisms and marriages in this 
book, the greater part of which is filled with matters relating to the disciphne 
and government of the congregi'ation. It appears from one of the first of 
these notices that the ' ' Malt-House" dissenters formed themselves into a con- 
gregation in October, 1709, when forty-eight men and twelve women signed 
a public declaration, expressing their "unfeigned assent and consent to all and 
every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book entitled ye Book of 
Common Prayer and Administration of ye Sacraments and other Rites and 



388 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

Ceremonies of ye Church of England." The leadmg men of this congi-ega- 
tion, who ^yere chosen "Anciens,"or elders, on its formation, appear to have 
been Jean de Cleve, Abraham de la Neuve Maison, Jean de Lon, Gabriel 
Pain, and Paschal Lardeau. The notices immediately following show that 
hot quarrels broke out at once between the members of the "Walloon 
Chm-ch" and the worshipers at the "Malt-House," chiefly on account of a 
sum of "one hundred and fourscore poimds," assigned from a charitable 
fund in London to the Canterbmy refugees, and of which the new society 
claimed a fair share for its own poor. The dispute about this money was 
caiTied on with much bitterness, but how it ended is not stated. The first 
minister elected by the "Malt-House" congregation was Pierre Richard, who 
certifies, under date of July 30, 1710, that he has received the sum of fifty 
shillings from Monsieui- de Cleve, as his monthly salary, declaring himself 
" fort content et satisfait." Pien-e Richard left his charge soon after, and in 
September, 1710, Jean Lardeau was chosen minister, with no fixed pay, but 
on the understanding "qu'il jouira des benefices et priviledges de ceste 
Eglise." Whatever the privileges consisted of, the benefices probably were 
very small, for Jean Lardeau too quitted his post at the end of a few months, 
and after him came a quick succession of other pastors. Under date of Jan- 
uaiy 25, 1713, there is an entry stating that the muiisters and elders have 
leamt "avec douleur et un sensible deplaisir," of there being "une diminu- 
tion considerable des deniers qui se recuillent a hi porte de ceste EgUse;" 
and they exhort the members of the congregation to come foi-ward more free- 
ly with their money, each "selon les moyens qu'il plaist a Dieu de lui four- 
nir." The appeal seems to have had little effect, as far as can be judged 
from the. next entries, which show a decline in the number of members. In 
171 G, Pierre le Sueur was chosen minister, succeeding Jean Chai-pentier, and 
retained his charge tiU 1 744, Avhen the entries cease. Pierre le Sueui' made 
several conversions, which are noticed at great length ; and baptized sixty- 
three children dm-ing the term of his ministry, or about two per annum. . 
There is only one marriage-entry in the book. In veiy few of the entries of 
baptism is the origin of the parents given ; but it appears, from the names 
which occur, that natives of Prance were most numerously represented in the 
congregation. This is farther sho\vn in some of the notices, where the mem- 
bers of the old French chm-ch are referred to somewhat contemptuously as 
" Walloons." Among the names entered most j^l'equently are Sequin, Teve- 
lin, Blanchard, De I'Estang, Bore, Le Due, Ricard, and Le Sueur. The 
name Layard occurs once in this entry: "Susanne Pran^oise de I'Estang, 
fiUe de Monsiem* Louis de I'Estang a ete batise'e le 30 de Sept., 1728, et a eu 
■])0ur parrain Monsiem* Pierre Layard et pour marraine mademoiselle Fran- 
9oise de St. Paul." 

Walloon Church, Norwich. 
The registers of this church are in t)ne volume, described as follows in the 
official " certificate" pasted against the fly-leaf: "The annexed book is the 
origmal Register-book of baptisms and marriages which has been kept for the 
church or chapel called the French or Walloon Church, being of the French 
Protestant denomination, situated in the city of Noi-wich, founded about the 



WALLOON CHURCH, NORWICH 389 

year 1 590, and now dissolved, and so declared by decree of the Coui-t of Chan- 
cery in a suit of Attorney General v. Columbine in 1836. The book sent has 
been from time to time in the custody of the minister or deacons for the time 
being of the congregation, and is sent to the commissioners from the imme- 
diate custody of Edgai- Tayler, of Bedford Eow, in the county of Middlesex, 
who has kept it since 1834, as solicitor to Mr. Hemy Martineau, the last 
deacon, from whom he received it for production in the said suit. Signed the 
21st day of June, 1837. Edgar Tayler, solicitor." 

The book, a long naiTOw folio, about five inches broad and rather more 
than an inch thick, is tolerably well preserved, with the exception of the first 
twenty pages, which are worm-eaten, torn, and illegible. The heading of the 
first page is " Baptesmes en I'Eglise WaUonne de Korwich depuis le 22 Juin, 
1595," Under date of June 29, 1595, is the first legible entry : " Victor du 
Bois presente un enfans pom- estre bapthise et le nom de lenfan sapellera Eliz- 
abeth." The next entry which can be deciphered runs: "Le 20 de Julet, 
1595. Salut nous soit donne de par nostre Seignem- Jesus Christ. Moy 
RomTiille Terrien et ma femme presente mon enfant pom* estre baptiser en 
I'eglise de Dieu et donnons le nom David, et pom- tesmoin Philippe Terrien 
mon frere et Guillame De Bonne et pom- mai-ine Eatelinne Gate et Jenne De 
Bonne. Dieu en fasse son serviteur." The same formula, %vith slight varia- 
tions, continues throughout the whole of the entries orbaptism. 

There ai-e fifty-five entries in the yeal' 1595, commencing at the end of 
June ; sixty-nine in 1596 ; and thirty-three in 1597. The chronological order 
is very imperfectly kept m these and all the following entries, and the whole 
registiy seems incomplete. In scarcely any instance is the place of origin or 
nationality of the parents mentioned ; but the names appear to be about one 
half Flemish and the other half French, with a tendency, in both cases, to 
Anglicize them. 

The average number of baptisms during the first half of the seventeenth 
century is thirty per annum ; but after this period they rapidly decline, tiU, 
at the end of another fifty years, they amount to but one or two per annum. 
In 1700 there are three baptisms entered ; three again in 1701, two in 1702, 
three in 1703, two in 1704, and less than one for the average of the next five- 
and-twenty years. 

In November, 1695, occurs for the first time the name Martineau, in the 
baptism of a son of " Gaston Martineau," also called Gaston, with David le 
Monnier for godfather. Gaston Martineau has another son, named Guil- 
laume, baptized in October, 1700, with Anne Paon for witness ; and a third 
son, to whom the name Elie is given, in April, 1707. At this last baptism 
there is entered as godfather " M. Baldy, ministre de ceste eglise." 

The latter name reoccurs in the next entiy, which is of unusual length. It 
runs : ' ' Samedy matin 27 Mars, 1708, a trois quart d'heure apres minuit, 
ou environ, Dieu a done une enfant k David Baldy ministre, elle a este pre- 
sente au baptesme le dimanche suivant 28 dito dans I'eglise Waloone par 
Jude Have, parrin, et Elysabet de Sauvage, marrine. La nom de I'enfant est 
Marie." 

Gaston Martineau figm-es again as father of a daughter, named Marguerite, 
in August, 1711, the godfather and godmother being " Gaston Mai-tineau le 



390 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES, 

Jeuu6 et Marie Martineau aussy la Jeune." There are forty-one more bap- 
tisms entered from this date till the year 1752, when the register comes to an 
end. 

The same names reoccur constantly in this list : Lecohie, Bai'be, Colom- 
bine, Pigney, and La>Monnier or Miller. The final entry is "Pierre Le 
Monier, mglice Miller, fils de Pierre le Monier et de Marie Steward, nacquifc 
a Norwich le 21 Juin, 1752, et fut baptise le 30 du meme mois. H a eu 
pour parein son pere et sa mere pour meraine." 

At the end of the register-book of the Norwich ""Walloon Church" there 
is a list of marriages, filling eight pages, and extending from October, 1599, 
to May, 1611. The total number of marriages entered is ninety-five. Most 
of the notices are very short, merely stating the name of bridegroom and 
bride, though in some of the earlier ones the place of origin is given. In 
nearly every instance the places mentioned are in French Flanders — Valen- 
ciennes, Toumay, and Lisle occurring most frequently. There are no entries 
of any special interest. 

Against the fly-leaf at the end of the book is pasted a sheet of paper, giv- 
ing, as stated in the heading, " Copies of Inscriptions on the Monuments and 
Tombstones in the French Church, Norwich, aiTanged in order of date.'' 
There are thirty altogether, as follows : 
Dates of Death. Names, Ages, and Inscriptions. 

1729. May 29. David Martineau, ait. 32. Artis chirurgiaj peritissimi qui 
vitam suis percaram quam plurimis proficientem at pre- 
mature deposuit. 
1759. July 20. Kervin Wright, aged 55 years. An eminent physician in 
this city, son of the Rev. Kervin Wright, of Debenhain, 
Suffolk. 

1765. Mary Colombine, an infant. 

1766. April 22. Richard Willement, aged 52. 
1766. Peter Colombine, aged 6. 

1768. Nov. 19. David Martineau, aged 42 years. He was eminently distin- 
guished as a surgeon, as a man of most amiable manners, 
and as the best of fathers. 

1768. Nov. 28. John Hilyard, aged 17. 

1769. Oct. 18. Richard Willement, aged 25. 

1770. Dec. 11. Peter Colombine, aged 73. 

1776. July 22. Ann, wife of John Hilyard, aged 56. 

1779. Feb. 3. Esther, wife of Paul Colombine, and eldest daughter of Sim- 

eon Waller. A woman of singular merit and ingenuity, 
who lived with her husband near fifty years in perfect har- 
mony and affection. 

1780. May 6. Mary, wife of Peter Colombine, aged 86. 

1783. March 27. John Hilyard, aged 59. 

1784. Aug. 30. Paul Colombine, aged 85. Descended from an ancient 

family in the province of Dauphiny, in France, from 
whence his father, a man of piety, probity, and leaniing, 
withdrew at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes ; and 
having early taken a degree, abroad, practiced physic in 



FRENCH CHURCH, BRISTOL. 391 

this city. This, his youngest son, whose temperance, in- 
dustry, and moderation, through a long and blameless life, 
had merited and obtained the best and sweetest of human 
blessings — health, competence, and content. 
1788. Dec. 7. Catharine Blomfield, aged 86. 

1788. Dec. 19. Hewett Rand, aged 77. 

1789. Jan. 14. Mary, wife of Hewett Eand, aged 62. 

1790. March 14. Hannah Finch, aged 86. 
1790. Sept. 8. Mary Miller, aged 83. 

1797. Aug. 22. Margaret, relict of Eichard Willement, aged ^o. 

1799. Nov. 3. Elizabeth, wife of Peter Colorabine, aged 28. 

1800. Nov. 26. Sarah, wife of David Martineau, aged 74. She was emi- 

nently distinguished for sound judgment, active conduct, 

and piety. 
1805. E.B. 

1807. Jan. 13. Margaret Villement, aged 38. 
1810. Oct. 29. Peter Colombine, aged 73. 

1816. Sept. 21. Theodora, wife of David Colombine, aged 73. 

1817. Dec. 15. Sarah, daughter of David Colombine, aged 51. 
1819. Nov. 2. David Colombine, aged 86. 

1829. Jan. 13. Melea, wife of Peter Colombine, aged 78. 
1829. Jan. 30. Melea Colombine, aged 48. 

The above list is certified as correct by John W. Dowson, solicitor, Nor- 
wich, under date of January 13, 1838. 

French CJiurch, Bristol. 

The registei-s of this church, in three volumes, are described in the ofiScial 
"certificate" as follows: "The accompanying books are the original Register- 
books which have been kept for the Chapel called the French Protestant Epis- 
copal Chapel, the service of which was first held in what is called the May- 
or's Chapel, St. Mark the Gaunt. In 1726 they built one on the ground of 
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital for the Red Maids. The books sent have been 
from time to time in the custody of the churchwardens and the ministers, 
and are sent to the commissioners from the immediate custody of Marienne 
de Soyres, who has kept them since 1791, as the widow of the Rev. Francis 
de Soyres, the last of said congregation. Signed the 7th of March, 1838. 
M°«- de Soyx-es." In a letter accompanying this certificate, also signed Mari- 
enne de Soyres, it is stated that "the French began to arrive in Bristol in 
1 687, as they could escape from France, being sorely persecuted and forced 
to attend mass." "They joined," Madame de Soyres continues, "those 
already settled here, most of them from Nantes, Saint-Onge, Rochelle, Poi- 
tou, and Guyenne ; some of the very old people, alive when I came to Bristol, 
used to say the chapel was full to excess, the aisle filled with benches as well 
as altar ; so there must have been several hundreds. In 1790, when we 
came, the congregation never amounted to more than sixty, and mostly of 
people fond of French, or those wishing to improve Our own chil- 
dren, twelve in number, were all baptized in the parish church of St. Mi- 
chael's. . . . Neither Mr. de Soyres nor self belonged to the Refuge so-called. 



392 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

Mr. cle Soyres came to this country in 1783, I in 1786." In another note 
Madame de Soyres states that "not a remnant is left of the numerous French 
families formerly settled in Bristol." 

The first volume of the Bristol records, a folio about an inch thick, con- 
tains entries of baptisms, marriages, and burials, extending over the years 
1687 to 1700. All the entries are more or less minute in their details, some 
of them filling a page or more, and the whole book is exceedingly well kept 
and as well preserved. Many of the notices are full of interest, as giving the 
origin, occupation, and other particulars of the members of the congi-egation. 
A remarkably lai-ge number of them are described as "mariniers," "capit- 
taine de navire," or "maistre de na^nre," and nearly all are referred to as na- 
tives of the southern and western provinces of France, the neighborhood of 
LaRochelle and the Isle dc Rhe being most numerously represented. Next 
to the seamen, the trades and professions chiefiy occurring are "tisseran en 
laine," "ouvrier en laino," "orfevre," " serrui'ier, " "tailleur d'habit," "cor- 
dier," and "chirurgien." There are scarcely any noble names, and the whole 
of the adults refeiTcd to are entered as belonging to some profession or trade. 

The second volume contai-ns entries of baptisms, man-iages, and burials, 
ranging from 1701 to 1715. The notices are not quite as full as those of the 
first volume, but they also give, in most instances, the origin and occupation 
of the persons whose names occur. Among the burial-entries is the follow- 
ing: "Le mardy seizieme Juin mil sept cens trois a este enterre dans ceste 
Eglise appelle'e le Gant, Monsieur Descairac, un des nos ministres, age den- 
viron soixante six ans, apres avoir exerce le saint minist^re et preche la pure 
parole de Dicu dans cette meme Eglise depuis le vingt neuvieme May de 
I'annee mil six cens quatre vingt sept, sans inteiTuption jusqu'au Dimanche 
avant son dece's qu'il fut ataque' d'une apoplexie sur la chaire en prechant sur 
les paroles du livre de Josue, chap. 24, parties du vers 15®, en ces mots: Chois- 
isses vous aujoiu'dhuy a quy vous voulez servir ; mais quant a moy et a ma 

maison nous servirons a TEterncl Le corps fut donduit a TEglisc 

par tout le troupeau. Tinel, pasteur. " Among the trades that most fre- 
quently occur are "ouvrier en laine," "chapellier," and "marinier." The 
entries greatly decrease in number toward the end of the volume, and many 
of the names are English or Anglicized, 

The third volume contains short entries of baptisms, marriages, and buri- 
als, from 1715 to 1S07. They only fill twenty-eight pages, and the rest of 
the book is blank. There are but three entries from 1762 to 1807 — the first 
in 1762, stating the birth of a son of " Pierre Gautier, ministre dc la chapello 
Francois ;" the second of May, 1791, mentioning the death of the same 
Pierre Gautier; and the third of Februaiy 15, 1807, the death of "Fran9ois 
de Soyres, ministre." 

French Church of Stonehoiise, Plymouth. 
The registers of this church are in four small volumes, described as follows 
in the official "certificate" pasted against the cover of volume the first: "The 
accompanying books are the original Register-books of births or baptisms, 
marriages and burials, which have been kept for the chapel called 'L'Eglise 
fran9oise de Stonehouse,' in the county of Devon, founded about the year 



FRENCH CHURCH AT STONEHOUSE. 393 

1692, and the congregation dissolved in the year 1810. The books sent have 
been from time to time in the custody of the minister for the time being, and 
are sent to the commissioners from the custody of the incumbent of East 
Stonehouse, who has kept them since the year 1829 ; Mr. Delacombe, of 
Stonehouse, trustee, having had charge of them in the interim. Signed the 
3d of November, 184:0. H. A. Greaves, inc. of Stonehouse. " 

The first volume contains entries of births, marriages, and deaths from 
1692 to 1720. They follow each other irregularly; the baptisms and mar- 
riages are always signed by the minister, but the interspersed notices of death 
are seldom thus authenticated. There are nine entries of baptisms, one of 
marriage, and three of deaths,- from July to December, 1692, and the same 
proportion continues throughout, with a great decline toward the end. It is 
very rarely that the place of origin is given, though, from the names and oth- 
er indications, it appears that nearly all the members of the church were of 
French descent. An entry, under date of October 10, 1692, runs : *' Suzanne 
Godineau, veuve, decedee le jour d'hier a este ce jour enterre au nouveau 
cimitiere donne pour la sepulture des fran9ois refugies en ceste ville de 
Stonehouse." 

There is an entry of exti-aordinary length under date of September 13, 
1697, stating the marriage- of " Guillaume Henry Aures, Sieur de la Combes, 
filz naturel et legitime de feu M. Aures et damoiselle Marie de Gout natif de 
Saint- Andre de Yalborgne, dans le Sevenes en France et apres deraeurant a 
Plymouth, d'une part, et damoiselle LouizeTordeux fille legitime et naturelle 
de feu Charles Tordeux Sieur de Belle Espine et damoiselle Anne Blaize na- 
tifue de Metz en Lorraine, d'autre part." The minister, Charles Delacombe, 
in this entry describes himself as "ministre de I'Eglize fran9oise conformiste 
de Stonehouse." 

The whole of the entries, from October, 1697, to the end of the volume in 
July, 1710, are signed "Etienne Molenier, ministre," and bear evidence of 
great care, in the minuteness of many of the facts. Between the baptisms, 
man-iages, and deaths are various notices of another character, such as "le 
18 Janvier, 169|. Izaac Videau de la Trenblade en France a fait recognois- 
sance publicque de la faute qu'il a fait." Another notice, following soon 
after, is more explicit. It runs : "Le 30 Juillet, 1699, Jean Gruseiller natif 
de St. George de Didonne a fait reconnoissance publicque de la faute qu'il 
avoit comise en france en ayant adhere k I'idolatrie de I'eglise romenne, par 
devant nous ministre de I'Eglise fran9oise de Stonhouse le jour et an que 
dessus. Molenier." There are altogether seven of these notices, the last in 
1701. The name Delacombe reoccurs constantly in the latter part of the 
volume. 

The second volume, a small thin quarto, like the previous one, contains 
entries of baptisms and marriages from 1720 to 1741. In nearly all these 
entries, the baptisms as well as the marriages, the individuals present have 
signed their names, in some instances as many as ten or twelve at a time. 
Most of the persons appear to have been able to write, for the "marks" are 
comparatively rare, amounting to scarcely more than five in a hundred. The 
total number of entries is not above 140, or at the rate of 7 per annum, about 
two thirds of them representing baptisms. 



394 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

Interspei-sed are some curious notices, described in the heading as "deli- 
berations du Consistoire," the longest of which, filling an entire page, is as fol- 
lows : " Notre aide soit au nom de Dieu qui a fait le ciel et la terre. Amen. 
Nous pasteur de I'Eglise fran9oise de Stonehouse nous estant assembles en 
consistoire avec les anciens de la ditte Eglise, sur la plainte a nous portee par 
Anne Ratton, veuve, contra Jacques Loiel, tous deux habitans de ce lieu et 
menibres de la susditte Eglise, de ce que Jacques Loiel avoit scandaleuse- 
ment procede et agi enver elle et son honneur, estant alors senile en sa cham- 
bre, tant de parolles que d'actions deshonnestes, avons apres avoir invoque's 
les lumieres divines du Saint Esprit, et murement deliberez sur la plainte 
porte et sur les cir Constances scandaleuses, trop connues de la plus grande 
partie des membres de la ditte Eglise, avons deja a cet egard procedez contre 
le delinquaut par censures ecclesiastiques, auquel nous avons fait premier- 
ment demander k genoux pardon a Dieu et a son Eglise de son scandale et 
de sa fautte devant les anciens et devant la ditte offensee a laquelle nous lui 
avons eusuitte apres I'avoir fait relever fait faire excuse et reparation de son 
attendat devant les temoins choisis par elle, apr^s quoi pour peinne et puni- 
tion du scandal du dit Jacques Loiel, nous I'avons taxe a une amende pour 
les pauvres et Tavons suspendu de la St. Cene pour six mois a compler de- 
puis Pacque jusqu' a la St. Michel, au quel temps apres avoir fait paroitre sa 
repentance au Consistoire, et lui demander d'entree restitue, sera alors resti- 
tue sans reconnoissance publique ; en foi de quoi nous avons signe la presente 
deliberation censure et suspension prononce en Consistoire ce 28 Mars de la 
presente annee 1721. J. De Maure, pasteur. T. Delacombe, secretaire. 
Jaques Lardeau, J. Delatorte, J. Guitton." 

The next notice shows a similar exercise of judicial functions of the min- 
ister and elders against one Eran9ois Alard, for "rebellion manifesto conti-e 
le Pasteur de I'Eglise," with the addition that, having made " reconnissance 
de son scandal, "he had been pardoned, "il a ete recu a la St. Cene et rota- 
ble comme membra fidel de la susditte Eglise." The whole of these entries 
are signed "Joseph De Maure, pasteur de Stonehouse et ministre du St, 
Evangile." 

The third volume of the Stonehouse records, a very small octavo of about 
twenty leaves, in the shape of a pocket-book, contains a few entries of bap- 
tisms and burials, ranging from 1743 to 1760. All the entries are signed 
"Fauriel, ministre ;" and the heading of th.e burials is "Memoire de ceux 
qui sont morts dans mon Eglise depuis I'annee 1743." There are no notices 
of any interest, and the. whole of the entries seem to have been made merely 
as personal memoranda for the use of the pastor. 

The fourth volume, a thin quarto of about twenty-five pages, contains on 
the one side entries of baptisms from 1762 to 1791, and on the other of buri- 
als from 1762 to 1782. The first entiy of baptism runs : " Le 24"= Septembre, 
1762, sur un Vendredi, a ete baptisee Anne fille legitime de monsieur An- 
toine Delacombe, ancien de notre Eglise et de Madame Jeane, nee Dela- 
combe sa femme. Parain, Monsier Eran9ois Delacombe, ancien de notre 
Eglise. Maraine, Madame Jeane, femme de Jean Brock, lieutenant, pour 
Sa Majeste." The fourth entry of baptism is as follows : " Le 23 Septembre, 
1764, a ete batisee, sur un Dimanche, Frederic Louis, fils legitime de Mon- 



CHURCH AT THORPE-LE-SOKEN. 395 

sieur David Louis Monin, pasteur de cette Eglise et de Lydie nee Droz sa 
femme. Parrain. Monsieur Jean Brock, lieutenant, pour Sa Majeste le Koi 
George. Maraine, Madame Jeane ne'e Delacombe, femme de Monsieur An- 
toine Delacombe, Ancien de notre Eglise." 

There are but two baptisms entered in 1764, one in 1765, one in 1766, one 
in 1767, and then none till 1770, when there is again one. Under date of 
1772 is the notice, "Le service de notre ancienne Eglise fran9oise de Stone- 
house a pris fin le vingt Septembre et j'ai couvoque le Seigneur pour la nou- 
velle Eglise le 18th Octobre, 1772, a deux heures apres midi. Martin Guil- 
laume Bataille, ministre du St. Evangile." 

There are thirty-five more entries of baptisms from 1772 till 1791, when 
the list closes. Under date 1790 there is an entry marking the com- 
mencement of the French Revolution and the Vendee troubles. It runs : 
" George Marie Eugene, fils de Eran9ois Bertrand et de Eene le Goff natife 
de Basse Bretagne en France fut ne' a Stonehouse et baptisee par moi a la 
maison le jour de sa naissance dix neuvieme dAvril, 1790. Le parain a ete 
le tres puissant Eugene Jacques Marie de Keroiiatre, chevalier, et Maraine la 
tres puissante Aline Yvesse Maria Quemper demoiselle de Lanascol. La 
ceremonie fut faite par moi Martin Guillaume Bataille, ministre." 

The entries of burials are but nineteen in number during the years 1763 to 
1782, or one per annum. In nearly all cases it is stated that the deceased 
was*'enterree dans le cimetiere de la Chapelle angloise." The first six en- 
tries were made, as stated in the heading, during the ministiy of David Louis 
Monin, who became "pasteur" April 11, 1762, and the rest, commencing in 
1770, are signed by Martin Guillaume Bataille. All the names that occur 
are French. There are no notices of special interest. 

French Church of Thorpe-le-Soh&i, Essex. 

The registers of this church, comprising baptisms, burials, and maniagcs, 
are in two parts, bound in one thin volume tolerably well preserved. In the 
first part the baptisms are entered on the one side, and the burials and mar- 
riages indiscriminately on the other. The second part of the book consists 
of an index of the baptisms and marriages aiTanged in chronological order, 
from 1684 to 1726, and followed by the notice "L'Eglise Fran9oise de Thorpe, 
faute de membres, fut fermee peu apres ce tems-la." 

The entries of baptisms are all of some length, each signed by the minister 
for the time being, but none of them stating the origin of the parents. There 
are thirteen entries signed "Severin, ministre," from Mai-ch, 1684, to Sep- 
tember, 1686 ; one signed Laporte, in March, 1687 ; ninety-nine signed Mes- 
tayer, from May, 1687, to May, 1707; ten signed Colin, from January, 1708, 
to November, 1713 ; and seven signed Eichier, from March, 1717, to January, 
1726, when the register ceases. It thus appears that the births, at the estab- 
lishment of the colony and for some time after, averaged about five per an- 
num, and fell down in the end to less than one. 

There is evidence from the minute care of the entries that the register was 
very perfect. The first entry in the book is as follows : " Aujourd'huy 9 jour 
de Mars, 1684, a este baptize Marthe, fiUe de Jean Sionneau et d'Elizabeth 
Maistayer ses pere et mere. De laquelle le Sieur Jean de L'estrille Sieur de 



396 REGISTERS OF FRENCH CHURCHES. 

la Glide a este pavrain ct mile. Marguerite Raillard, veuve de feu le sieur 
Estrang, maraine, qui ont dit que cet enfant est nee le 6^ jour du meme mois 
et de la ditte annee. Severin, ministre." All the other entries are similar, 
only varying in adding at times to the name of the parents the parish in 
which they live, most frequently "la Paroisse le Thorpe," and, in fewer in- 
stances, "la paroisse de Kirby," "de Tendrin,"and others. 

The greater part of the members of the congregation were clearly agricul- 
turists ; a large proportion bear noble names — Charles de la Porte, Pierre lo 
Eebure, and Jacques de Mede, occur very frequently. Others, less numerous, 
are Abraham de Riviere, and Charles Fouquet de Bournizeau. "Paul Po- 
tier, maitre chirurgien, " figures often in the earlier notices. From an entry 
tinder date of March, 16Sf , it appears that there was a French congregation 
at Harwich, as the godfather mentioned is " Le sieur Hypolite de Lazancy, 
ministre de la paroisse D'Harwich et Dovercourt." 

The register of marriages and burials commences in 1684: and ends in 
171S. As in the case of the births, every entry is signed by the minister. 
Marriages and burials succeed each other with curious regularity, and the 
notices throughout are very clear and precise. The first entry runs: "Au- 
jom-d'huy 13 jour de May, 1684, a este beny le marriage dans I'Eglise de 
Thorp d'entre Charles de la Porte natif de St. Jean de Gardomenque en la 
province de Sevenes, d'une part, et Louise Plumail fiUe de deffunct Theodore 
Plumail, nvant marchand demeurant a Riord en Poitou et Louise de la 
Vaux, ses pere and mere d'autre part. Severin, ministre." The next entry 
is"Aujourd'huy Ijour de May, 1865, a este enterre le corps de deffunt Isaac 
de Scvre dit La Chaboissiere decode au Seigneur le 29 d'Avril de cette an- 
nee, age d'environ soixante et treize ans. Severin," 

The same forms continue throughout, though in many cases of burials the 
origin or occupation of the deceased is mentioned. In September, 1688, is 
the entry of tl^e burial of " Samuel Bauchamp, cy devant avocat au Parle- 
ment de Paris, age' dc 78 ans;" and in December, 1705, that of "Pierre Es- 
pinasse, de la paroisse de Thorpe, chirurgien. " The marriages cease alto- 
gether in 1708, and tliere are but very few deaths after this period — two in 
1709, two in 1711, one 1712, and one in 1718. The last entry is that of the 
death of "Susanne Grcllet," and a notice at the end of the register-index 
states that the Grellet family kept the books of the congregation for a time. 
This notice, signed "Jacob Bourdillon, pasteur," and dated November 13, 
1784, attests that "Monsieur Jacques Grellet s'etant retir<^ k Londres, m'a 
remis, il y a environ douze ans, le livre des actes et registres de Consistoire, 
aussibien que celui desBatemes, marriages et enterrements de I'Eglise fran- 
9aise de Thorpe, lesquels j'ai confie au Consistoire de mon Eglise de I'Artil- 
lerie au Spitalfields." 

French Ghurdi at Tlioi-ney Ahhey^ Cambridgeshire. 

Nothing is known of the origin of the French church at Thorney Abbey, 
which was .established in 1652, and continued until 1727. The register of 
baptisms begins in 1654, and contains particulars of the names of the spon- 
sors as well as parents of the children baptized. 

It is supposed that the Thorney French church was formed shortly after 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 397 

the breaking up of the Walloon colony at Sandtoft, in the Level of Hatfield 
Chase, Yorkshire, during the wars of the Commonwealth, and that many of 
the settlers then came from the northern colony. 

An abstract of the Sandtoft register (now lost) is given by the Eev. Joseph 
Hunter in his History of the Deanery o/Doncaster, from which it would appear 
that out of seventy-one families at Sandtoft, fourteen- removed to Thorney, 
bearing the names of Bentiland, Blancart, Descamps, Egar, Flahau, Le Haire, 
Hardieg, Harlay, De la Haye, De Lanoy, De Lespierre, Massingarbe, Du 
Quesne, and Taffin ; as well as members of the following families : Amory, 
Beharelle, Blique, Du Bois, Clais, Le Conte, Coqueler, Deshiens, Desquier, 
La Fleur, Fontaine, Frouchart, Gouy, Hancar, Le Lieu, Marquillier, Eenai-d, 
Kamery, Le Roux, Le Eoy, Le Talle, and Vennin. 

There are, however, numerous names in the Thoniey register which do not 
occur in that of Sandtoft, more particularly those of De Bailleu, Lisy, De 
Seine (Dessein), Le Fevre, Sigie, Le Pla, Rio, Fauverque, De la Rue, Caillet, 
"Wantier, Descou, Dournelle, Yserby, Vandebeck, Du Pont, Brasseur, Sene- 
schal, etc. 

The French congregation at Thorney does not appear to have received 
any accession of members in consequence of the Revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes. In the five yeai-s following the Revocation not a single baptism ap- 
pears in any family which was not settled in Thorney before that event. 

The average number of baptisms at this church from 1660 to 1670 was 
39 ; in the following ten years, 32 ; from which time the number gi-adually 
declined, until, in the ten years ending 1727, the baptisms were only six. 

Judge Bayley, of the Westminster County Court, to whom we are indebted 
for this analysis of the Thorney register, is descended from one of the foreign 
settlers, and informs us of the singular mutations which the name of his 
family has undergone in little more than two centuries — from the original 
De Bailleu, or De Bailleux, to Balieux, Balieu, Balieul, De Bailleul, Bail- 
leul, Balieul, Bayly, Bailly, and eventually Bayley — all these successively ap- 
pearing in the register, showing the tendency of foreign appellations gradu- 
ally to assimilate themselves to those of the country in which they have be- 
come native, and illustrating the difficulty of preserving the spelling, and 
even the sound, of foreign family names during the course of a few genera- 
tions. 



ni. HUGUENOT REFUGEES AND THEHl DESCENDANTS. 

The following list of the more notable men among the refugees has been 
collated from Haag's La France Protestant§ ; Agnew's Fi^oiestant Exiles frvm 
France; Durrant Cooj>efs Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens, 1618-1GS8; 
Burn's History of the Foreign Refugees ; the Ulster Journal of Archceohgy ; 
and from private sources of information. It is probable that important 
names have been omitted from the list, and that the facts may in certain 
cases be inaccurately stated. Should the opportunity be afforded him, the 
author will be glad to correct such defects in a future edition. 



398 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



ABBADIE, James, D.D., a native 
of Nay, in Beam, where he was bom 
in 1654. An able preacher and writ- 
er ; first settled in Berlin, which he 
left to accompany the Duke of Schom- 
berg into England. He was for some 
time minister of the Cluu-ch of the Sa- 
voy, London, and was afterward made 
Dean of Killaloe in Ii-eland. He died 
in London in 1727. For fai'ther no- 
tice, see p. 240. 

ALLIX, Peter, an able preacher 
and controversialist. Bora at Alen- 
9on 1G41 ; died in London 1717. 
Was one of the ministers of the great 
church at Charenton, near Paris. At 
the Revocation he took refuge in En- 
gland, where he Avas appointed canon 
and treasurer to the Cathedral of 8al- 
isbmy. For farther notice, see p. 212, 

AJMAND, or AMYAND : a Hu- 
guenot refugee of this name settled in 
London in the beginnning of last cen- 
tury. His son Claude was principal 
surgeon to George II. ; and the two 
sons of the latter were Claudius, under 
secretaiy of state, and George (created 
a baronet in 17G1), who sat in Pai'lia- 
ment for Barnstaple. The second 
baronet assumed the name of Corne- 
wall. His daughter married Sir Gil- 
bert Frankland Lewis, Bart., and was 
the mother of the late Sir Cornewall 
Lewis, Bart., M.P. 

ANDRE, the name of a French 
refugee family settled in Southampton, 
from whom the celebrated and unfor- 
tunate Major Andi'e was descended, 
though the latter was brought up at 
Lichfield. 

AUBERTIN, Peter, a native of 
NeufchS,tel, in Picardy, who fled into 
England about the middle of last cen- 
tmy. He was for many years an emi- 
nent merchant in London. His son, 
the late Rev. Peter Aubertin, vicar of 
Cliipstead, Surrey, died in 18G1 at the 
age of 81, leaving a nmnerous family. 

AUFRERE, GEORaE, M.P., de- 
scended from a Huguenot refugee-^ 
sat for Stamford in Parliament from 
1761 to 1768. 

AURIOL, Peter, a refugee from 
Lower Languedoc, who rose to emi- 
nence as a London merchant. The 



Archbishop of York, the Hon. and 
most Rev. R. N. Dnimmond, married 
Ms daughter and heiress, Henrietta, 
and aftenvard succeeded to the peer- 
age of Strathallan. The refugee's 
daughter thus became Countess of 
Strathallan. The present head of the 
family is the Earl of Kinnoul, who 
continues to bear the name of Auriol. 
The Rev. EdAvard Auriol is rector of 
St. Dunstans-in-the-West, London. 

BACQUENCOURT, see Des 
Vceux, 

BARON, Peter, Professor in the 
University of Cambridge about 1575. 
He was originally from Etampes, and 
fled to England after the massacre of 
St. Bartholomew. He died in Lon- 
don, leaving behind him an only son, 
Samuel, who practiced medicine, and 
died at Lyme-Regis, in Norfolk. 

BARRE, a Protestant family of 
Pont-Gibau, near Rochelle, several 
members of which settled in Ireland. 
Peter Barre married Miss Raboteau, 
also a refugee, lie was an alderman 
of Dublin, and carried on a large busi- 
ness as a linen-draper. His son Isaac, 
educated at Trinity College, DubUn, 
entered the army, in which he rose to 
high rank. He was adjutant general 
of the 'British forces under Wolfe at 
Quebec. He aftenvard entered Par- 
liament, where he distinguished him- 
self by his eloquence and liis opposi- 
tion to the American Stamp Act. In 
1776 Colonel Ban-e was made vice- 
ti-easurer of Ireland and privy coun- 
cilor. He subsequently held the of- 
fices of treasurer of the navy and pay- 
master of the forces, in both of Avliich 
he displayed eminent integrity and ef- 
ficiency. He died in 1802. 

BATZ, the name of a Huguenot 
family, the head of which Avas seigneuj" 
of Monan, near Nerac, in Guyenne. 
Three of the sons of Joseph de Batz, 
seigneur of Guay, escaped from France 
into Holland, entered the service of 
the Prince of Orange, whom they ac- 
companied in his expedition to En- 
gland. Two of them, captains of in- 
fantry, were killed at the Boyne. 

BEAUFORT, Daniel Augustus 
r>E, a controversial writer, was pastor 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



399 



of the church of the New Patent in 
1728 ; of the ArtUleiy in 1728 ; and 
of the Savoy, and probably Spring 
Gai'dens, in ] 741. He aftenvard went 
to Ireland, where he held the li-ving of 
Navan, and was appointed Dean of 
Tnam. The descendants of the fam- 
ily are still in England. One is rector 
of Lymm in Chesliii-e ; another is fa- 
vorably known as a novelist. 

BEAUVOIE, De, the name of one 
of the most ancient famihes in Langue- 
doc, several branches of which were 
Protestant. Fi-ancis, eldest son of 
Hcipio du Roure, took refuge in En- 
gland at the Revocation, and obtained 
a company in a cavaliy regiment. His 
two sons also followed the career of 
arms with distinction. Alexander, 
the eldest, was colonel of the 4th Poot, 
governor of Plymouth, lieutenant gen- 
eral, commander-in-chief in Scotland, 
etc. He especially distinguished him- 
self at the battle of Dettingen. He 
went into France for the benefit of 
his health, and died at Bareges, whith- 
er he had gone for the benefit of the 
waters. The French government hav- 
ing refused his body Christian burial, 
in consequence of his being the son of 
a refugee Protestant, the body was 
embalmed and sent to England to be 
buried. The second son, Scipio, was 
also the colonel of an Enghsh inflmtiy 
regunent, and was killed at the battle 
of Fontenoy, Another family of the 
same name is si^rung from Richai'd de 
Beauvou', Esq., of the island of Guern- 
sey, who purchased the manor of 
Balmes, in the parish of Hackney, 
and thus gave its name to De Beau- 
voir town. 

BELCASTEL DE MONTVAIL- 
LANT, PiEREE, a refugee officer from 
Languedoc, who entered the service 
of William of Orange. After the 
death of I.a Caillemotte at the Boyne, 
he was made colonel of the regiment. 
Belcastel took a prominent part in the 
Irish campaigns of 1690-1. He was 
eventually raised to the rank of major 
general in the Dutch army. He was 
lolled at the battle of Villa Viciosa, in 
Spain, in 1710. 

BENEZET, Antoine, one of the 



earliest and most zealous advocates of 
negro emancipation. He was born in 
London in 1713, of an honest refugee 
couple from St. Quentin, and bred to 
the trade of a cooper. He accompa- 
nied his parents to America, and set- 
tled at Philadelphia. There he be- 
came a Quaker, and devoted himself 
with great zeal to the question of 
emancipation of the blacks, for whose 
childi'en he established and supported 
schools in Philadelphia. He died 
there in 1784. 

BENOIT, N. , a refugee silk-weaver 
settled in Spitalfields. He was the 
author of several conti'oversial works, 
more particulaiiy relating to baptism, 
Benoit being of the Baptist persuasion. 

BER]Snl]RE, Jean Antoine de, a 
refugee ofiicer who served under the 
Earl of Galway in Spain. He lost a 
hand at the battle of Almanza. His 
son was a captain in the 30th Foot ; 
his grandson (Henry Abraham Crom- 
melin de Berniere) was a major gen- 
eral in the British army; and his 
great-grandson, maiTied to the sister 
of the present Archbishop of Canter- 
bmy, rose to the same rank. 

BERTHEAU, Rev. Charles, ref- 
ugee pastor in London, a native of 
Montjiellier, expelled from Paris, 
where Tie was one of the ministers of 
the great Protestant church of Charen- 
ton at the Revocation. He became 
minister of the Walloon chm-ch in 
Threadneedle Sti-eet, which office he 
filled for forty -four years. Several 
volumes of his sermons have been pub- 
lished. 

BION, JeanFean90is, a native of 
Dijon, Roman Catholic ciu*ate of Ursy, 
afterward appointed chaplain to the 
galley Svperbe at Toulon, wliich con- 
tained a large nimiber of gaUey-slaves 
condemned for their faith. Touched 
by their sufferings, as well as by the 
patience and courage witli which they 
bore them, Bion embraced Protestant- 
ism, exclaiming, " Their blood preach- 
es to me !" He left France for Gene- 
va in 1704, and afterward took refuge 
in London, where he was appointed 
rector of a school, and officiated as 
minister of the French church at Cliel- 



-too 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



sea. He subsequently proceeded to 
Holland, where hQ exercised the func- 
tions of chaplain of an English chiuxh. 
He was the author of several works, 
his best kno^vn being the Relation des 
Tourviens que Von fait souffrir aux 
JProtestans qui sont sur les Galeres de 
France, published at London in 1 708, 

BLANC, An'Thony, pastor of the 
French chui-ch of La Nouvelle Patente 
in 1692. Theodore and Jean Blanc 
were two other Prench refugee pastors 
in London about the same time, the 
latter being pastor of L'Artillerie. 
The Blancs were from Saintonge and 
Poitou. 

BLAQUI]6RE, De, a French noble 
family, of whom John de Blaquiere, a 
zealous Huguenot, took refuge in En- 
gland in 1685. One of his sons be- 
came eminent as a London merchant ; 
another settled at Lisburn, where his 
sister married John Crommelin, son 
of Louis. The fifth son, John, enter- 
ed the army, and rose to be lieutenant 
colonel of the 17th Light Dragoons. 
He held various public offices — was 
secretary of Legation at Paris, secre- 
tary to the lord lieutenant of Ii-eland, 
was made a bai'onet in 1784, and 
raised to the peerage in 1800 as Lord 
de Blaquie're of Ardldll in Ireland. 

BLONDEL, Moses, a learned ref- 
ugee scholar in London, circa 1621, 
author of a work on the Apocrj'phal 
writings. 

BLONDEL, James Augustus, a 
distinguished refugee physician in 
London, as well as an able scholar. 
The author of several learned and sci- 
entific treatises. Died in 1 734. 

BLOSSET, a Niveraais Protestant 
family, the head of which was the 
Sieur de Fleuiy. Several Blossets 
fled into Holland and England at the 
Revocation. Colonel Blosset, of 
"Blosset's Foot," who settled in Ire- 
land, was the owner of a good estate 
in the county of Dublin. Sergeant 
Blosset, aftei-ward Lord Chief Justice 
of Bengal, belonged to the family. 

BO CHART, Francois. Haag 
says that among the Protestant ref- 
ugees in Scotland, Francis Bochart 
has been mentioned, who, in conjunc- 



tion with Claude Paulin, established in 
1730 ^the manufactm-e of cambric at 
Edinburg. 

BODT or BOTT, John de, a ref- 
ugee French officer, appointed captain 
of artillery and engineers in the Brit- 
ish serrice in 1 690. He distinguished 
himself by the operations conducted 
by him at the siege of Kaumur, to 
which William HI. mainly attributed 
the capture of the place. Bodt after- 
ward entered the serv'ice of the King 
of Prassia, who made him brigadier 
and chief engineer. He was also emi- 
nent as an architect, and designed 
some of the principal public btiilcSngs 
at Berlin. 

BOESMER DE LA TOUCHE, 
pastor of the French congi-egation at 
Winchelsea in 1 700-6. His son, of 
the same name, was a surgeon in Lon- 
don in 1 764, 

BOILEAU DE CASTELNAU, 
an ancient Languedoc family, many 
of whose members embraced Protest- 
antism and remained faithful to it. 
Charles, son of Jacques Boileau, coun- 
cilor of Nismes, was a captain of in- 
fantry in the English service, who set- 
tled in England about the end of the 
seventeenth century, and was the 
founder of the English branch of the 
Boileau family, the present head of 
which is Sir John Boileau, Bart. 

BOIREAU, seeBouherau. 

BOISBELAU DE LA CHA- 
PELLE, usually knoAvn as Annand 
de la ChapeUe, left France at the Re- 
vocation. He was destined for the 
ministry from an early age. At 
eighteen he was sent into Ireland to 
preach to the French congregations, 
and after two years, at the age of 
twenty, he was appointed pastor of 
the French church at Wandsworth. 
He subsequently officiated as minister 
of the Artillery Church, and of the 
French church at the Hague. He 
was a voluminous writer. 

BONHOMME, a Protestant draper 
from Paris, who settled at Ipswich, 
and instructed the artisans there in 
the manufacture of sail-cloth, which 
shortly became a considerable branch 
of British industiy. 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



401 



BONNELL, Thomas, a gentleman 
of good family near Ypres, in Flan- 
ders, who took refuge in England from 
the Duke of Alva's persecutions, and 
settled at Norwich, of which he be- 
came mayor. His son was Daniel 
Bonnell, merchant, of London, father 
of Samuel Bonnell, who served his ap- 
prenticeship with Sir William Com- 
teen (a Flemish refugee), and estab- 
lished himself as a merchant at Leg- 
horn. He retui-ned to England, and 
at the Eestoration was appointed ac- 
countant general for Ireland. He 
died at Dublin, and was succeeded in 
the office by his son, a man eminent 
for his piety, and whose life has been 
^vritten at gi-eat length by Ai-chdeacon 
Hamilton, of Armagh. 

BOSANQUET, David, a Hugue- 
not refugee, natm-ahzed in England in 
1687. His grandson, Samuel, was a 
director of the Bank of England. 
Mary, the sister of the latter, was the 
celebrated wife of the Rev. Mr. Fletch- 
er, vicar of Madeley. Other members 
occupied illustrious positions in socie- 
ty. One, William, founded the well- 
knovra bank in London. Su* John B. 
Bosanquet, the celebrated judge, also 
belonged to the family, which is now 
represented by Samuel Richard Bosan- 
quet, of Dingeston Court, Monmouth. 

BOSQUET, Andrew, a refugee 
from Languedoc, who escaped into 
England after suffering fourteen years' 
slavery in the French king's galleys. 
He was the originator of the West- 
minster French Chaidty School, found- 
ed in 1747, for the education of chil- 
di-en of poor French refugees. 

BOSTAQUET, Dumont de. For 
notice of, see p. 192 et seq. 

BOUFFARD, a refugee family from 
the neighborhood of Castres, of whom 
Bouffard, Siem' de la Gaa-rigue, was 
the head. One of the family emigra- 
ted to England, and, in accordance mth 
the usual practice, took the name of 
the family estate. David Garrick, 
the tragedian, is said to have been one 
of his descendants. 

BOUHERAU, Elias, M.D., D.D., 
a learned Huguenot refugee, who be- 
came secretary to the Earl of Galway 

c 



in L-eland. When the earl left Ire- 
land, he became pastor to one of the 
French congregations in DubHn ; was 
afterward episcopally ordained, and 
officiated as chantor of St. Patrick's 
Cathedral, One of his sons, John, 
entered the Chm-ch ; another was 
' ' town-major" of Dublin. The latter 
altered Ms name to Borough, and from 
him the present Sir E. R. Borough, of 
Baseldon Park, Berkshire, is lineally 
descended. 

BOURDILLON, Jacob, an able 
and eloquent pastor of several French 
chm-ches in London. For notice of, 
see p. 278. 

BOUVERIES, Laurence des, a 
refugee from Sainghen, near Lille, in 
1568. He settled first at Sandwich, 
and afterward at Canterbmy, where he 
began the business of a silk-weaver. 
Edward, the grandson of Laurence, 
established himself in London as a Le- 
vant mei'chant, and from that time the 
family greatly prospered. WiUiam 
was made a baronet in 1711, and Ja- 
cob was created a peer, under the ti- 
tle of Viscount Folkestone, in 1 747. 
His son Philip assumed the name of 
Pusey on his mai-riage in 1798. The 
Rev. Dr. Pusey, of Oxford, is one of 
the sons by this marriage. For far- 
ther notice, see p. 309. 

BOYER, Abel, a refugee from 
Castres, where he was born in 1G64. 
He died, pen in hand, at Chelsea, in 
1729. He was the author of the well- 
known French and English Dictiona- 
ry, as well as of several historical 
works. 

BRISSAC, B. DE, a reftigee pastor 
from Chatellerault, who fled, from 
France at tlie Revocation. We find 
one of his descendants, Captain George 
Brissac, a du-ector of the French Hos- 
pital in London in 1 773. Haag says 
that one of the female Brissacs became 
famous at Berlin for her" sausages, and 
especially for her black puddings, 
which continue to be knovm there as 
' ' boudins fran^ais. " 

BRUNET; a. numerous Protestant 
family in Saintonge. N. Brunet, a 
privateer of La RocheUe, was in 1662 
condemned to suffer corporal pmiish- 



402 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



ment, and to pay a fine of 1000 IhTes, 
unless mthin a given time he produced 
before the magistrates thirt}'-six young 
Protestants whom he had carried over 
to America. Of coui'se the refugee 
youths were never produced. At the 
Eevocation the Branets of Rochelle 
nearly all emigrated to London. We 
find frequent baptisms of children of 
the name recorded in the registers of 
the chm-ches of Le Quarre and La 
Nouvelle Patente, as well as mamages 
at the same place, and at Wheeler 
Sti'eet Chapel and La Patente in Soho. 

BUCER, Martin, a reftigee firom 
Alsace ; one of the early reformers, an 
eloquent preacher as well as a vigor- 
ous and learned writer. He accepted 
the invitation of Archbishop Cranmer 
to settle in England, where he assisted 
in revising the English Liturgy, ex- 
cluding what savored of popery, but 
not going so far as Cahin. He was 
appointed professor of theology at 
Cambridge, where he was presented 
mth a doctor's diploma. But the ch- 
mate of England not agreeing with 
him, Bucer retm-ned to Strasburg, 
where he died in 1551. 

BUCHLEIN, otherwise caUed FA- 
GIUS, a contemporary of Martin Bu- 
cer, and, like him, a refugee at Cam- 
bridge University, where he held the 
professorship of Hebrew. While in 
that ofiice, which he held for only a 
few years, ha fell ill of fever, of which 
he died, but not without a suspicion of 
having been poisoned. 

BUISSIISrE, Paul, a celebrated 
anatomist, F.R.S., and corresponding 
member of various scientific societies. 
He lived for a time in London, but 
eventually settled at Copenhagen, 
where he achieved a high reputation. 
We find one Paul Buissi^re governor 
of the French Hospital in London in 
1729, and Jean Buissiere in 1 776. 

CAILLEMOTTE, La, younger son 
of the old Marquis de Rmdgny, who 
conunanded a Huguenot regiment at 
the battle of the Boyne, where he was 
killed. See Massue, and notices at p. 
211 and 215. 

CAMBOlSr, a refugee Fi-ench offi- 
cer, who commanded one of the Hu- 



guenot regiments raised in London in 
1689. He fought at the Boyne and 
at Athlon e, and died in 1693. 

CAPPEL, Louis, characterized as 
the father of sacred criticism. He was 
bom at Saint Eher in 1585 ; at twenty- 
he was selected by the Duke of Bouil- 
lon as tutor for his son. Four years 
later, the church at Bordeaux fm-nish- 
ed him with the means of visiting the 
principal academies of England, Hol- 
land, and Gemiany. He passed two 
years at Oxford, during which he 
principally occui)ied himself with the 
study of the Shemitic languages. He 
subsequently occupied the chair of the- 
ology in the University of Samm*, un- 
til his death, which occurred in 1658. 
Bishop Hall designated Louis Cappel 
"the gi-and oracle of the Hebrasts." 
Louis's son James was appointed pro- 
fessor of Hebrew in the same Univer- 
sity at the early age of nineteen. At 
the Revocation he took refuge in En- 
gland, and became professor of Latin 
in the Nonconformist College, Hoxton 
Square, London. See notice at p. 246. 

CARBONEL, John, son of Thom- 
as Carbonel, merchant of Caen : John 
was one of the secretaries of Louis 
XIV. , and fled to England at the Rev- . 
ocation. His brother William became 
an eminent merchant in London. 

CARLE, Peter, a native of VaUer- 
augue in the Cevennes, bom 1666 ; 
died in London 1 730, He fled fi*om 
France at the Revocation, passing by 
Geneva through Switzerland into Hol- 
land, and finaEy into England. He 
entered the corps of engineers in the 
army of William, and fought at the 
Boyne, afterward accompanying the 
army through aU its campaigns in the 
Low Coimtries. He rose to be fourth 
engineer in the British service, and re- 
tired upon a pension in 1693. He aft- 
erward seiwed under Lord Galway in 
Spain, when the King of Portugal 
made him lieutenant general and en- 
gineer-in-chief. In 1720 he returned 
to England, and devoted the rest of 
his life to the improvement of agricul- 
ture, on which subject he wrote and 
published many useful works. 

CARR!^, a Protestant family of 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



403 



Poitou, of which several members em- 
igrated to England, and others to 
North America. A M. Can-e officia- 
ted as reader in the French church at 
Hammersmith, and another of the 
same name was mimster of La Pa- 
tente in London. We also find one 
Francis Carre a member of the con- 
sistory of New York in 1 772. 

CARTAUD or CARTAULT, 
Matthew, a Protestant minister who 
fled from Prance at tlie time of the 
Baitholomew massacre, and officiated 
as pastor of the little chm-ch of fugi- 
tives at Rye, afterward returning to 
Dieppe ; and again (on the revival of 
tlie persecution) finally settling and 
djing in England. One of liis sons 
was minister of La Nouvelle Patente 
in London in 1696. 

CASAUBON, Isaac, son of a 
French refugee from Bordeaux settled 
at Geneva, where he was bom in 1559. 
His father retmned to Paris on the 
temporary cessation of the persecution, 
became minister of a congi-egation at 
Crest, and proceeded with the educa- 
tion of his son Isaac, who gave signs 
of extraordinary abilities. At nine 
years of age he spoke Latin with flu- 
ency. At the massacre of St. Bai- 
tholomew the family fled into conceal- 
ment, and it was while hiding in a 
cavern that Isaac received from his 
father his first lesson in Greek. At 
nineteen he was sent to the academy 
of Geneva, where he studied jurispru- 
dence under Pacius, theology under 
De Beza, and Oriental languages un- 
der Chevalier ; but no branch of leai'n- 
ing attracted him more than Greek, 
and he was, at the age of twenty-fom*, 
appointed professor of that language 
at Geneva. His lai'ge family induced 
him to return to France, accepting the 
professorship of civil laws in the Uni- 
versity of MontpeUier ; and there he 
settled for a time. On the revival of 
persecution in France at the assassi- 
nation of Hemy IV., Casaubon emi- 
grated to England. He was well re- 
ceived by James I., who gave him a 
pension, and appointed him prebend 
of Westminster. He died at London 
in 1614, leaving behind him twenty 



sons and daughters, and a large num- 
ber of works written during his life- 
time, chiefly on classical and religious 
subjects. His son Florence Stephen 
Casaubon, D.D., ha\'ing accompanied 
his father into England, was entered a 
student at Christ Church, Oxford, in 
1614, where he greatly distinguished 
himself. In 1622 he took the degree 
of M.A. He was appointed rector of 
Ickham, and afterward prebendary of 
Canterbury. He was the author of 
many learned works. He died at 
Canterbury in 1671. 

CAUX, Db : many refugees of this 
name fled from Nonnandy into En- 
gland. Several of them came over 
from Dieppe and settled in Norwich, 
their names fi-equently occurring in 
the registers of the French church 
there, in conjunction with those of 
Martineau, Coliunbine, Le Monnier, 
De la Haye, etc. Solomon de Caus, 
the engineer, whose name is connected 
with the first invention of the steam- 
engine, spent several years as a refugee 
in England, after which he proceeded 
to Gei-many in 1613, and ultimately 
died in France, whither he retm-ned 
in his old age. For notice of Mm, see 
p. 281. 

CAVALIER, John, tne Cevennol 
leader, afterwai-d major general in the 
British anny. For notice, see p. 222. 

CHAIGNEAU, Louis, John, and 
Stephen, refugees from St. Sairenne, 
in the Charente, where the £imily 
held considerable landed estates. They 
settled in Dubhn, and prospei'ed. One 
of the sons of Louis sat for Gowram 
in the Irish Parliament ; another held 
a benefice in the Chm-ch. John had 
two sons — Colonel William Chaig- 
neau, and John, Treasurer of the Ord- 
nance. The gi-eat-grandson of Ste- 
phen was called to the Irish bar in 
1793, and eventually purchased the es- 
tate of Beno^vn, in county Westmeath. 

CHAMBERLAYNE, Peter, M. 
D., a physician of Paris, who fled into 
England at the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew. He was admitted a mem- 
ber of the college of physicians, and 
obtained an extensive practice in Lon- 
don, where he died. 



404: 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



CHAMIER, an eminent Protestant 
family, originally belonging to Avig- 
non. Daniel Cfiamier, who was killed 
in 1621 in the defense of Montauban, 
then besieged by Louis XIII., was one 
of the ablest theologians of his time, 
and a leading man of his party. He 
drew up for Hemy IV. the celebrated 
Edict of Nantes. Several of. his de- 
scendants settled in England. One 
was minister of the Erench church in 
Glass-House Street, London, and aft- 
envard of the Artillery Church. His 
eldest son, also called Daniel, emigra- 
ted to Maryland, U. S., where he set- 
tled in 1753. A younger son, Antho- 
ny, a du-ector of the Erench Hospital, 
sat for Tamworth in Parliament in 
1772. See also Des Champs. 

CHAMP AGN]&, HOBILLARD DE, a 

noble family in Saintonge, several of 
whom took refuge in England and 
Ireland. The children of Josias de 
Eobillard, chevalier of Champagne, 
under charge of their mother, escaped 
from La EocheUe concealed in empty 
wine-casks, and anived safe at Plym- 
outh. Then: father went into Holland 
and took service with the Prince of 
Orange. He afterward died at Bel- 
fast on his way to join his regiment in 
Ireland. Madame de Champagne set- 
tled at Portarlington mth her family. 
One of Champagne's sons, Josias, was 
an ensign in La Melonniere's regi- 
ment of Erench infantiy, and fought 
at the Boyne. He afterward became 
major of the 14th Eoot. Several of 
his descendants have sen-ed with dis- 
tinction in the army, the Chm-ch, and 
the ci^^l seiwice, while the daughters 
of the family have intermarried with 
various titled families in England and 
Ireland. 

CHAMPION, see Crespigny. 

CHAEDEVENNE, a i?rotestajit 
family belonging to Casteljaloux. The 
first eminent person of the name was 
Antoine, doctor of medicine, who aft- 
erward became a famous preacher and 
pastor, first at Caumont, and after- 
ward at Marennes. At the Revocation 
the members of his family became dis- 
persed. Some of them went to North 
America; in 1724 we findPieiTe (son 



of the pastor above named) a member 
of the French Chm-ch at New York, 
while others fled to England, and es- 
tablished themselves at Hungerford. 

CHAELOT, Charles, better 
known under the name of D'Ai-gen- 
teuil, was a Eoman Catholic cure con- 
verted to Protestantism, who took ref- 
uge in England, and officiated as pas- 
tor in several of the London churches. 
In 1699 he was minister of the Taber- 
nacle, vidth Pierre Eival and Caesar 
Pegorier for colleagues. He publish- 
ed several works through Duchemin, 
the refugee publisher. 

CHAEPENTIEE, of Euffec, in 
Angoumois, a martyr in 1685 to the 
brutaHty of the dragoons of Louis 
XIV. To force him to sign his abju- 
ration they made Mm diink from 
twenty-five to thirty glasses of water ; 
but this means failing, they next 
dropped into his eyes the hot tallow 
of a Ughted candle. He died in great 
torture. His son John took refuge in 
England, and Avas minister of the 
Malthouse Chm'ch, Canterbury, in 
1710. 

CHASTELET, Hippoltte, a 
monk of La Trappe, who left that 
monasteiy in 1672, and took refuge in 
England, where he acquired gi-eat 
ftmie as a Protestant preacher, under 
the name of Lusancy. He officiated 
for a time as pastor of the church in 
the Savoy, and was afterward appoint- 
ed to the charge of the French church 
at Harwich. Lusancy Avrote and pub- 
lished a life of Marshal Schomberg, 
together with othei* works, principally 
poetiy. 

CHATELAIN, Henry, son of 
Zachariah Chatelain, a manufactm-er 
of gold and silver lace (see notice at p. 
247), who fled from Paris to HoUand, 
and there inti-oduced the manufacture. 
Zachariah had nine sons and two 
daughters, Heniy, the eldest son, 
was boni at Paris in 1684. He was 
educated at Leyden, and eventually 
decided to enter the Church. He 
came over to England in 1709, and 
was ordained by the Bishop of Lon- 
don. He became minister of the 
French chiirch of St. Martin Ongars 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



405 



in 1 711, and latterly accepted the pas- 
torate of the chm-ch at the Hague, 
where he died in 1743. He was a 
most eloquent preacher, as well as a 
\-igorous writer. He Avrote the life of 
Claude, as well as of Bernard, and a 
work On the Excellence of the Chris- 
tian Religion^ besides six volumes of 
seimons. 

CHENEVIX, a distinguished Lor- 
raine family, which became dispersed 
throughout Em'ope at the Revocation. 
The Beville branch of the family set- 
tled in Brandenburg, and the Eply 
branch in England. Phihp Chene\'ix 
was minister of the church of Limay, 
near Mantes, from which place he fled 
to London. One of his sons entered 
the King's Guards, of which he be- 
came colonel. The son of this last 
was for thuty years Bishop of Water- 
ford. Another member of the family, 
llichard, was a distinguished chemist, 
member of the Royal Society in 1801 , 
and author of many able works on sci- 
ence, including an Essay on National 
Character. For notice of Paul Chen- 
evix of Metz, brother of the Eev. 
Philip Chenevix above named, see 
note to p. 154. 

CHERON, Louis, a painter and en- 
graver who took refuge in England at 
the Revocation, and died in London 
ml723. 

CHEVALIER, Antoine-Ro- 
D o L p H E, a zealous Huguenot, bom 
at Montchamps in 1507. When a 
youth he was compelled to fly into En- 
gland for life. He completed his stud- 
ies at Oxford, and being recommended 
to the Duke of Somerset, he was se- 
lected by him to teach the Princess 
(afterward Queen) Elizabeth the 
Prench language. Chevalier subse- 
quently held the professorship of He- 
brew at Cambridge, but resigned it in 
1570 to return to France. He was 
again compelled to fly by the renewed 
persecution at the time of the Bai-- 
tholomew massacre, and he died in 
exile at Guernsey in 1572. He was a 
voluminous author on classical sub- 
jects. During his short residence 
abroad, he left his son Samuel at Gen- 
eva, for the pm-pose of being educated 



for the Church, under Theodore de 
Beza. On the revival of the persecu- 
tions in Prance, Samuel took refuge in 
England, and was appointed mmister 
of the Fi-ench church in London in 
1591, and afterward of the Walloon 
chm-ch at Canterbuiy in 1595. Mr. 
Chevalier Cobbbld, M.P., belongs to 
this family. 

CLAUDE, Jean- Jacques, a young 
man of remarkable talents, grandson 
of the celebrated Pi-ench preacher at 
the Hague. He was appointed pastor 
of the Walloon chm*ch in Threadnee- 
dle Street in 1710, but died of small- 
pox a few years later, aged only twen- 
tj^-eight. 

" COLIGNON, Abraham de, minis- 
ter of Mens. At the Revocation he 
and several of his sons took refuge in 
Hesse, while Paul became minister of 
the Dutch church in Aiistin Priai'S, 
London. His son Charles became 
professor of anatomy and medicine at 
Cambridge, and was known as the au- 
thor of several able works on those 
subjects. 

COLLOT DE L'ESCURY, a refu- 
gee officer' from Noyon, who escaped 
from Prance through Switzerland into 
Holland at the Revocation, and joined 
the aniiy of Wilham of Orange. He 
was major in Schomberg's regiment at 
the Boyne. His eldest son David was 
a captain of dragoons ; another, Sim- 
eon, was colonel of an Enghsh regi- 
ment, both of whose sons were cap- 
tains of foot. Their descendants still 
siu'W'e in Ireland. 

COLOMlllS, Jerome, the great 
pastor and preacher of Rochelle, be- 
longed to a Bearnese family. His 
grandson, Paul, the celebrated author, 
came over to England in 1G81, and 
was first appointed reader in the 
French dmrch of the Savoy. San- 
eroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, aft- 
erward made him his libi-arian. Paul 
Colomies was the author of numerous 
learned works, the titles of nineteen of 
which are given by Haag in La France 
Protestante. He died in London, 
1692. 

CONAUT, John, son of a Protest- 
ant refugee from Normandy who had 



406 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



settled in Devonshire. He studied at 
Oxford, entered the Chui-ch,- and was 
appointed vicar of Yeaknpton, Devon, 
in which office Cromwell continued 
him dming the Commonwealth. In 
1654: he was appointed professor of 
theology, and in 1(557 vice-chancellor 
of the University of Oxford. In 1 6 7(j 
he was archdeacon of Norwich, and in 
1681 he was appointed a prebendaiy 
of Worcester. He died in 1693. 

CONSTANT, a Protestant family 
of Artois. At the Revocation, several 
of them fled into S%vitzerlaud, others 
into Holland, and took senace under 
the Prince of Orange. Samuel, 
known as Baron de Constant, served 
as adjutant general under Lord Albe- 
marle in 1704, and afterward fought 
under Marlborough in all the great 
battles of the period. His son David- 
Louis, an officer in the same sei-vice, 
was wounded at Fontenoy. Benjamin 
Constant, the celebrated French au- 
thor, belonged to this family. 

COECELLIS, Nicholas, son of 
Zeager CorceUis of Ruselier, in Flan- 
ders, who took reftige in England from 
the persecutions of the Duke of Alva. 
Nicholas became a prosperous London 
merchant. James was a physician in 
London, 1664. 

CORNAUD DE LA CROZE, a 
learned refugee, author of 7%e Works 
of the Learned, The nistory of Learn- 
ing, and numerous other works. 

COSNE, Pierre de, a refugee 
gentleman from La Beauce, Orleans, 
who settled at Southampton. His son 
Ruvigny de Cosne entered the Cold- 
stream Guards, and rose to be lieuten- 
ant colonel in the British armj. He 
was afterward secretary to the French 
embassy, and embassador at the Span- 
ish court, 

COSNE- CHAVERNEY, de, an- 
other branch of the same family. 
Captain de Cosi;e-Chavemay came 
over with the Prince of Orange in 
command of a company of gentlemen 
volunteers. He was lieutenant colo- 
nel of Belcastel's regiment at the tak- 
ing of Athlone in 1691. 

COTTEREAU, N., a celebrated 
Protestant horticulturist, who fled into 



England at the Revocation, and was 
appointed one of the gardeners of Wil- 
Ham in. Having gone into France 
to look after a manufactory of pipes 
which he had estabhshed at Rouen, he 
was detected encouraging the Protest- 
ants there to stand fast in the faith. 
He had also the imprudence to write 
something about Madame de Mainte- 
non in a letter, which was consti-ued as 
a libel. He was thereupon seized and 
thl•o^vn into the Bastile, where he lay 
for many yeai-s, during several of which 
he was insane. The converters oiFer- 
ed him Hbei*ty if he would abjm-e his 
religion. At last he abjui-ed, but he 
was not released. "It was deemed 
just, as weU as necessaiy, that Cotter- 
eau should remain in the Bastile and 
be forgotten there." He accordingly 
remained there a prisoner for eighteen 
years, luitil he died. 

COULAN", Anthony, a refiigee 
pastor from the Cevennes, He was 
for some time minister of the Glass- 
house Street French chm-ch in Lon- 
don. He died in 1694. 

COURTEEN, WiLLiAJi, the son 
of a tailor at Menin in Flanders, a 
refugee in England from the persecu- 
tions of the Diike of Alva. He estab- 
lished himself in business, with his son 
Peter Boudeau, in Abchm-ch Lane, 
and is said to have owed his prosperity 
to tlie manufacture of French hoods. 
His son became Sir William Courteen, 
a leading merchant of the city of Lon-> 
don. His descendants also mai-ried 
with the Bridgewater and other noble 
families. 

COUSIN, Jean, a refugee pastor 
from Caen, one of the first mmisters 
of the Walloon church in London 
about the year 15G2. He retm*ned 
to France, but again fled back to En- 
gland after the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, and died in London. 

CRAMAH:^, a noble family of La 
RocheUe. The three brothers, Crani- 
alie', DeLTsle, andDes Roches, made 
arrangements to escape into England 
at the Revocation. The two fonner 
succeeded, and settled in tliis coimtiy. 
Des Roches was less fortunate ; he was 
detected under the disguise in which he 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



40/ 



was about to fly; was flogged, mal- 
treated, stripped of all tlie money he 
had, put in chains, and cast into a 
dungeon. After being transfeiTed 
from one prison to another, and un- 
dergoing many cruelties, being found 
an obstinate heretic, he was, after 
twenty-seven months' imprisonment, 
banished the kingdom. 

CRAMEK, a refugee Protestant 
femily of Strasburg, some of whom 
settled in Geneva, where Gabriel Cra- 
mer, a celebrated physician, became 
Dean of the College of Medicine in 
1677. Jean-Louis Cramer held the 
rank of captain in the English anny, 
and served with distinction in the 
Spanish campaign. When the French 
army occupied Geneva at the Revolu- 
tion, Jean-Antoine, brother of the pre- 
ceding, came over to England and set- 
tled. His second son, Jean-Antoine, 
was a professor at Oxford and Dean 
of Carlisle. He was the author of 
several geogi'aphical works. Another 
member of this family was Gabriel 
Ci-amer, of Geneva, the celebrated 
mathematician. 

CUE GUT, a refugee pastor from 
Montehmar, who officiated as minis- 
ter of the French church in Wheeler 
Street, and aftei-ward in that of La 
NouveUe Patente, London. 

CRESPIGNY, Claude Chabipion 
DE, a landed proprietor in Noj-mandy, 
who fled from France into England 
with his family at the Revocation. 
He was related by maniage to the 
Pierpoints, who hospitably received 
the fugitives. Two of his sons enter- 
ed the army ; Gabriel was an officer 
in the Guards, and Thomas captain 
in Hotham's Dragoons. The grand- 
son of the latter had two sons : Pliilip 
Champion de Crespigny, M.P. for Aid- 
bough, 1803, and Sir Claude Cham- 
pion de Crespigny, created baronet in 
] 805. 

CROMMELIN, LoTJis, royal su- 
perintendent of the linen manufacture 
in Ireland, to which office he was ap- 
pointed by William HE. For notice 
of him, see p. 285. 

CRUSO, John, a refugee from 
Hownescoat in Flanders, who settled 



in Noi-wdch. His son Timothy be- 
came a prosperous merchant in Lon- 
don, and founded the present Norfolk 
family of the Cnisos. 

DAELLON, James de, a member 
of the illustrious family of Du Lude. 
He entered the English Church, and 
held a benefice in Buckinghamshire 
toward the end of the 17th century; 
but, having declai-ed in favor of James 
II., he was deposed from his office in 
1693, and died in London in 1726. 
His brother Benjamin was also a ref- 
ugee in England, and held the office 
of minister in the church of La Pa- 
tente, which he helped to found. 

D ALBIAC : this family is said to 
derive its name from Albi, the capital 
of the country of the Albigenses, which 
was destroyed in the religious cmsade 
against that people in the thirteenth 
century. The D'Albiacs fled from 
thence to Nismes, where they suffered 
heavily for their religion, especially 
after the Revocation. Two youthftil 
D'Albiacs were sent to England, hav- 
ing been smuggled out of the country 
in hampers. They both prospered 
and founded families. We find the 
names of their descendants occuning 
among the directors of the French 
Hospital. The late Lieutenant Gen- 
ei-al Sir J. C.Dalbiac, M.P., was line- 
ally descended from one of the sons, 
and his only daughter became Duchess 
of Roxburghe by her marriage with 
the duke in 1836. 

DALECHAMP, Caleb, a reftigee 
from Sedan, who entered the EngUsh 
Chui'ch, and became rector of Feniby 
in Lincolnshire. 

DANSAYS, Francis, a French 
refugee at Rye, in Sussex. WiUiam 
was a jm*at of that town ; he died in 
1787. The family is now represented 
by the Stonhams. 

DARGENT or DARGAN, a refu- 
gee family from Sancerre, some of the 
members of which settled in England 
and Ii-eland at the Revocation. Two 
of them served as officers in William 
in.'s Guards. Two brothers were 
directors of the French Hospital — 
John in 1756, and James in 1762. 

D'ARGENTEUIL, see Cliarht, 



408 



EUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



DAUDE, Peter, a member of one 
of the best families of Maniejols in 
the GeVaudan. He came to England 
in 1680, and became a tutor in the 
Trevor family, after which he ac- 
cepted a clerkship in the Exchequer, 
which he held for twenty-eight years. 
He was a very learned, but an ex- 
ceedingly diffident and eccentric man. 
His nephew, also named Peter, was a 
minister of one of the French chm-ches 
in London. 

DAVID, a Protestant feniily of 
Rochelle, many members of which fled 
from France, some into England, and 
others to the United States of Ameri- 
ca. One, John Da\'id, was a director 
of the French Hospital in London in 
1750. 

DE JEAN, Lotris, descended from 
a French refugee, was colonel of the 
6th Dragoon Guards, and eventually 
lieutenant general. 

DE LA CHEROIS, a noble family 
of Languedoc, seigneurs of Cherois, 
near Sens. Three brothers fled into 
Holland and took sen-ice imder the 
Prince of Orange. Their two sisters 
afterward fled in disguise on horse- 
back, accompanied by a faithful page, 
traveUng always by night, and con- 
cealing themselves in the woods dur- 
ing the day. The brothers followed 
the fortunes' of William III. ; fought 
at the Boyne, where one of them was 
killed, and afterward in the Low 
Countries. The two remaining broth- 
ers, Nicholas and Daniel, eventually 
settled at Lisbiim in Ireland, where 
they maiTied tvvo daughters of Louis 
Crommelin. Daniel was appointed 
governor of Pondicherry in the East 
Indies. Nicholas reached the rank 
of lieutenant colonel in the British 
army. Their descendants still exist 
in Ireland, 

DE LAHsTE, Peter, a French ref- 
ugee, who fled into England before 
the Revocation, and obtained letters 
of denization dated 1681. He was 
appointed French tutor to the chil- 
dren 6f the Duke of York, aftenvard 
James 11. 

DE LA MOTHE, see Mothe. 

DELAXJNE, a refugee family from | 



Normandy, who took refuge in En- 
gland as early as 1599, when a De- 
laune officiated as minister of the 
Walloon church in London. Anoth- 
er, in 1618, held the office of minister 
of the Walloon chm'ch at Norwich. 
Thomas Delaime was a considerable 
%vriter on religious and controversial 
subjects. 

DE LAVAL ADE: this famUy 
possessed large estates in Languedoc. 
Several members of them succeeded 
in escaping into Holland, and after- 
ward proceeded to Ireland, settling in 
Lisbuni. M. de Lavalade was forty 
years pastor of the French chm-ch 
there. 

DELEMAR, De la Mer, Del- 
MER, a Protestant refugee family at 
Canterbury, whose names are of fre- 
quent occun-ence in the register of 
that chm-ch. Then- descendants ai-e 
numerous, and enjoy good positions in 
society. 

DELM]^, Philip, minister of the 
Walloon congregation, Canterbury, 
whose son Peter settled in London as 
a merchant, and whose grandson, Sir 
Peter, ancestor of the present family 
of Delme Radcliffe, was lord -mayor 
of London in 1723. 

DE LOVAL, VicoMTE, possessor 
of large estates in Picardy, who, after 
heavy persecution, fled at the Revo- 
cation, and took refuge in Ireland, 
settling at PortarUngton. His son 
was an officer in the British ai-my. 

DE MOIVRE, Abrahaji, F.R.S. 
For notice, see p. 235. 

DESAGULIERS, Dr. For no- 
tice, see p. 234. 

DES CHAMPS, John, a native 
of Bergerac, belonging to an ancient 
family established in Perigord. At 
the Revocation he took refuge, first 
in Geneva, and then in Prussia. Of 
his sons, one became minister of the 
church at Berlin, while another came 
over to England and became minister 
of the church of the Savoy, in which 
office he died in 1 767. The son of 
the latter, John Ezekiel, entered the 
ci\'il service of the East India Com- 
pany, and became member of Council 
of tiie Presidency of Madras. He ul- 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



409 



timately took the name of Chamier^ 
having been left sole heir to Antho- 
ny Chamier. By his marriage with 
Georgiana Grace, daughter of Admi- 
ral Bumaby, he had a numerous fam- 
ily. One of his sons is Captain I'red- 
erick Chamier, the novelist and nau- 
tical annalist. 

DES MAISEAUX, Peter, a na- 
tive of Auvergne, bom in 1666, the 
son of a Protestant minister who took 
refuge in England. Little is known 
of Des Maiseaux's personal history 
beyond that he was a member of the 
Royal Society, a friend of Saint E-vTe- 
mond, and a voluminous author. He 
died in 1 745. 

DES ORMEAUX, also named 
Colin des ORsrEAUX, a RocheUe 
family. At the Revocation several 
members of it settled at Nonvich. 
One Catharine Colin was married to 
Thomas le Chevalier in 1727. Ga- 
briel CoHn was minister of Thorpe-le- 
Soken from 1707 to 1714. A mem- 
ber of the family, Jacques Louis des 
Ormeaux, was elected a director of 
the French Hospital in 1798. 

DES VCEUX, ViNCHON, second 
son of De Bacquencourt, president of 
the Pai-Hament of Rouen. He took 
refuge in Dublin, where he became 
minister of the Fi-ench church. In 
conjunction with the Rev. Peter Droz, 
he commenced, about 1742, tlie pub- 
•lication of the fii-st literary journal 
wliich appeared in Ireland. He aft- 
erwai'd removed to Portarlington. 
The present head of the family is Sir 
C. Des Voeux, Bart. 

DEVAYNES, William, M.P., 
descended from a Huguenot refugee. 
He was a director of the East India 
Company, a director of the Prench 
Hospital, and was elected for Barn- 
staple in 1 774. 

DE VEILLE, Hans, a refugee 
who entered the English Church, and 
was made library keeper at Lambeth 
by Archbishop Tillotson. His son 
Thomas entered the English army as 
a private, and was sent with Ms regi- 
ment to Portugal. Then he rose by 
merit to the command of a troop of 
dragoons. On his retmii to London 



he was appointed a London justice, 
an office then paid by fees ; and his 
conduct in the riots of 1735 was so 
much approved that he received the 
honor of knighthood. He was also 
colonel of the Westminster mUitia. 

DOLLOND, John. Por notice, 
see p. 325. 

DRELINCOURT, Peter, son of 
Charles DreUncourt, one of the ablest 
preachers and winters among the 
Prench Protestants. He was edu- 
cated at Geneva, and afterward came 
to England, where he entered the En- 
glish Church, and eventually became 
dean of Armagh. 

DU BOIS or DU BOHAyS, a 
Protestant family of Brittany, of 
whom many members came over to 
England, and settled at an early pe- 
riod at Thomey, Canterbuiy, Nor- 
■wich, and London. Others of the 
name came from Pi'ench Planders. 

DUBOUCHET, an illustrious 
Huguenot family of Poitou, several 
of whose members took refuge in 
England. One of tliem, PieiTe, of- 
ficiated as minister of the Prench 
chm-ch at Plymouth between 1733 
and 1 737. 

DU BOULAY, a family descended 
from the Marquis d'Argencon de Bou- 
lay, a Huguenot reftigee in Holland in 
1685. His grandson was minister of 
the Fi-ench chm-ch in Threadneedle 
Street, London. The family is now 
represented by Du Boulay, of Den- 
head Hall, Wiltshire. 

DUBOURDIEU, a noble Prot- 
estant famOy of Beam. Isaac was 
for some time minister of the Savoy 
chm-ch, London. His son, John Ar- 
mand, after having been minister at 
Montpellier, took refuge in England, 
and also became one of the ministers 
of the chm-ch in the Savoy. His 
grandson was the last pastor of the 
Prench church at Lisbui-n, and after- 
ward rector of Annahilt in Ireland. 
For notice of the Dubourdieus, see p. 
248, and notes to p. 253 and 280. 

DU BUISSON, Francis, a doctor 
of the Sorbonne. Becoming convert- 
ed to Protestantism, he fled into En- 
gland at the time of the massacre of 



410 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



St. Bartholomew, and became minis- 
ter of the Trench church at Rye. 

DU CAREL, Andrew-Coltee, a 
refugee who accompanied his parents 
from Caen into England at the revival 
of reUgious persecution in France in 
1724. He studied at Eton and Oxford. 
In 1757 he was appointed archbishop's 
librarian at Lambeth, and in the fol- 
loAving year he was sent to Canter- 
bury, where he held an important ap- 
pointment in the record office. He 
was a man of great antiquarian leara- 
iQg, and pubhshed numerous works on 
classical antiquities. 

DU CROS, John, a refugee from 
Dauphiny. In 1711 his son was min- 
ister of the Savoy. 

DU JON, a noble family of Berri, 
several members of whom took refuge 
in England. Francis, son of a refugee 
at Leyden, where he studied, was ap- 
pointed librarian to the Earl of Arun- 
del, and held the office for thirty years. 
He was one of the first to devote him- 
self to the study of Anglo-Saxon, and 
pubhshed several works on the sub- 
ject. 

DU MOULIN, an ancient and no- 
ble famOy of the Isle of France, that 
has fui-nished dignitaries to the Roman 
Church as well as produced many em- 
inent Protestant writers. Charles du 
Moulin, the eminent French juriscon- 
sult, declared himself a Protestant in 
1542. Pierre du Moulin belonged to 
another branch of the family. He was 
only four years old at the massacre of 
St. Bartholomew, and was saved by 
an old servant of his father. In his 
youth he studied at Sedan, and after- 
ward at Oxford and Leyden. ^ At the 
latter University he was ap'pointed 
professor of philosophy when only in 
his twenty-fourth year. Grotius was 
among his pupils. Seven years later 
he was " called" by the great Protest- 
ant chm-ch at Charenton, near Paris, 
and accepted the invitation to be their 
minister. He officiated there for twen- 
ty-four years, during which he often 
incurred great peril, having had his 
house twice piUaged by the populace. 
At the outbreak of the persecution in 
the reign of Louis XIII. he accepted 



the invitation of James I. to settle in 
England, where he was received >\ith 
every honor. The king appointed birn 
a prebendary of Canterbury, and the 
University of Cambridge conferred 
upon him the degree of D.D. He aft- 
erward retm-ned to Paris to assist in 
the conferences of the Protestant 
Church, and died at Sedan at the age 
of ninety. His two sons, Peter and 
Louis, both settled in England. The 
former was preacher to the University 
of Oxford in the time of the Common- 
wealth. In 1660 Chai-les 11. appoint- 
ed him one of his chaplains as well as 
prebendary of Canterbuiy. Louis, on 
the other hand, who had officiated as 
Camden Professor of Histoiy at Ox- 
ford during the Commonwealth, was 
tm'ned out of his office on the Resto- 
ration, and retired to Westminster, 
where he continued for the rest of his 
life an extreme Presbyterian. Both 
brothers were voluminous authors. 

DUNCAN, a Scotch family natu- 
ralized in France at the beginning of 
the 17th century. Mark Duncan was 
Protestant professor of philosophy and 
Greek at Saumur. One of his sons, 
Sainte-Helene, took refuge in Lon- 
don, where he died in 1 697. Another 
descendant of the family, Daniel, was 
celebrated as a chemist and physician, 
and wrote several able works on his 
favorite subjects. His son Daniel was 
the last pastor of the French .chmxh 
at Bideford, where he died in 1761. 
He was also celebrated as a wiiter on 
rehgious subjects. 

DUPIN, Paul, an eminent paper 
manufacturer who established himself 
in England after the Revocation, and 
earned on a large paper-mill with 
great success. 

DU PLESSIS, Jacques, chaplain 
of the French Hospital in 1750. An- 
other of the name, Francis, was min- 
ister of La Nouvelle Patente and 
Wheeler Street chapels, London — of 
the latter in 1720. 

DU PORT, a Protestant family of 
Poitou, several members of whom took 
refuge in England. One of them, 
James, was pastor of the French Wal- 
loon church in London in 1590. His 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



411 



son, of the same name, filled the office 
of professor of Greek at the Univer- 
sity of Cambridge with great distinc- 
tion. In 1G60 he was appointed dean 
of Peterborough and chaplain to the 
king. He was the author of several 
learned works, and died in 1679. 

DU PUY, a Protestant family of 
Languedoc. At the Revocation, the 
brothers Philip and David entered the 
army of "WiUiam of Orange. They 
were both officers in his guards, and 
were both killed at the Boyne. An- 
other brother, Samuel, was also an of- 
ficer in the British army, and seized 
with distinction in the Low Countries. 

DU QUESNE, ABiiAH^Uki, second 
son of the celebrated admiral, a lieu- 
tenant in the French navy, settled in 
England after the Revocation, and 
died there. His son Thomas Roger 
■was prebendary of Ely and vicar of 
East Tuddenham, Norfolk. Another 
branch of the family of Du Quesne or 
Du Cane settled in England in the 
sixteenth century. One of their de- 
scendants was an alderman of Lon- 
don. From this branch tlie Du Canes 
of Essex are descended, the head of 
whom is the present Charles du Cane, 
M. P., of Braxted Park. 

DURAND, a noble family of Dau- 
phiny. Several ministers of the name 
officiated in French churches in En- 
gland — one at Bristol and others in 
London. One Francis Durand, from 
Alen9on, a convert froin. Romanism, 
was minister of the Fi'ench church at 
Canterbmy in 1767. 

DURANT: several members of this 
Huguenot family sat in Parliament. 
Thomas sat for St. Ives in 1768, and 
George for Evesham. 

DURAS, B.VRON, see Durfort. 

DURFEY, Thomas, bom at Exe- 
ter about the middle of the seven- 
teenth century. The son of a French 
refugee from Rochelle, weU known as 
a song-writer and di-amatic author. 

DURFORT DE DURAS, an an- 
cient Protestant family of Guienne. 
Louis, marquis of Blanquefort, came 
over to England in the reign of Charles 
n. , and was well received by that mon- 
arch, who created him Baron de Du- 



ras, and employed him as embassador 
extraordinary at Paris. James II. 
created him, though a Protestant, 
Eai-1 of Faversham, and gave him the 
command of the army which he sent 
against the Duke of Monmouth. He 
died in 1709. The French church 
which he founded at Faversham did 
not long sm-vive him. 

DUROURE, Francis, scion of an 
ancient family in Languedoc. His 
two sons became officers in the En- 
glish army. Scipio was lieutenant 
colonel of tlie 12th Foot, and was 
killed at Fontenoy. Alexander was 
colonel of the 4th Foot, and rose to be 
heutenant general. 

DURY, Paul, an eminent officer 
of engineers, who entered the sen-ice 
of WilHam IDC., from which he passed 
into that of the Elector of Hesse. 
Two of his sons served with distinc- 
tion in the English army ; the elder, 
of the regiment of La Melonniere, was 
killed at the Boyne. 

DU SOUL, Moses, a refugee from 
Tours, known in England as a trans- 
lator and philologist about the begin- 
ning of the eighteenth century. 

DU TEMS, Louis, a refugee from 
Tours, historiographer to the king of 
England, member of the Royal Soci- 
ety and of the French Academy of In- 
scriptions. Having entered tilie En- 
glish Church, he was presented with 
the liiing of Elsdon in Northumber- 
land. He was the author of many 
weE-known works. 

DUVAL. Many refugees from 
Rouen of this name settled in En- 
gland, and several were ministers of 
French chm-ches in London. Several 
have been governors of the French 
Hospital. ' 

EMERIS. A refugee family of 
this name fled out of France at the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, and pur- 
chased a smaU property in Norfolk, 
which descended from father to son, 
and is still in the possession of the 
family, at present represented by W. 
R. Emeris, Esq., of Louth, Lincoln- 
shire. » 

ESPAGNE, John d', a refugee 
from Dauphiny, some time minister 



413 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



of Somerset House French church, in 
London ; the author of numerous re- 
ligious works. 

EVREMOND, Charles de St. 
Dents, Seigneur de Ste. Evre- 
MOND, a refugee gentleman of wit and 
bravery, who served Avith distinction 
under Turenne and Conde'. His sa- 
tu-ical humor lost him the friendship 
of his patrons, and provoked the en- 
mity of Louis XIV., who ordered his 
arrest. Having received timely no- 
tice, Evi-emond fled first into Ger- 
many and Holland, and afterward into 
England, where he became a great fa- 
vorite with Chai-les H., who gave him 
a pension. In 1678, an order in 
Council was passed directing retm-ns 
to be made of foreigners then in En- 
gland, and among them appears the 
falloAving, doubtless that of our French 
seigneur: "Nov. 23, 1678. Ste. Evre- 
mond, chasse de France il y a long 
temps, est venu d'abord en Angleterre, 
de la il est alle en Flandre, de I<landre 
en AUemagne, d'Allemague en Hol- 
lande, de Hollande il est revenu en 
Angleterre, ou il est presentement, ne 
pouvant retourner en son pais ; il n'a 
qu'un valet nomme Gaspard Girrard, 
flammand de nation. Je suis loge' 
dans St. Alban's Street au coin.— S""- 
Evremond."- — [State Papei's, Domes- 
tic, various, No. 694.] Ste. Evremond 
was not a Protestaiit, nor would he be 
a Catholic. Indeed, he seems to have 
been indifferent to rehgion. His let- 
ters are among the most biiUiant 
specimens of that style of composition 
in which the French so much excel ; 
but his other works are almost forgot- 
ten. Des Maiseaux, another refugee, 
published them in three vols, quarto 
in' 1705, afterward translating the 
whole into Enghsh. 

EYNARD, a refugee family of Dau- 
phiny. Anthony entered the British 
army, and served with distinction, dy- 
ing in 1739. His brother Simon be- 
gan business in London, and acquired 
a considerable fortune by his industr3^ 
A sister, Louise, married the refugee 
Gideon Ageron, who also settled in 
England. 

FARGUES, Jacques de, a 



Avealthy apothecaiy, belonging to one 
of the best famihes of Montpelher. 
In 1569 his house was pillaged by the 
populace, while he himself was con- 
demned to death because of his rehg- 
ion, and hanged. His family fled to 
England, where then* descendants still 
exist. 

FLEURY, Louis, Protestant pas- 
tor of Tom-s, who fled into England 
in 1683. His son, PhiHp Amauret, 
went over to Ireland as a Protestant 
minister, and settled there. His son, 
grandson of the refugee, became vicar- 
choral of Lismore; and the great- 
gi-andson of the refugee, George Lew- 
is Fleury, became archdeacon of Wa- 
terford. 

FONNEREAU. Three members 
of this family, descended from a Hu- 
guenot refugee — Zachary Philip, 
Thomas, and Martin — sat in Parha- 
ment successively for Aldborough in 
1768, 1773, and 1774. 

FONTAINE, James, M.A. and J. 
P. For notice of, see p. 2i)l. 

FORET, Marquis de la, a major 
general in the British army, who 
served in the Irish campaign of 1699. 

FORRESTIER, or F o r r e s t e r. 
There were several refugees of this 
name in England. Peter Forrester 
was minister of the French church, 
La Nouvelle Patente, in 1708. Paul 
was minister of the French church at 
Canterbury ; and another was minis- 
ter of that at Dartmouth. Alexander 
was a director of the French Hospital 
in 1735 ; and James was a captain m 
the British ai-my. 

FOURDRINIER, Henry, the in- 
ventor of the paper-making machine. 
He was descended from one of the 
numerous industrial famihes of the 
north of France who fled into Holland 
at the Revocation. From Holland, 
Fourdrinier's father passed into En- 
gland about the middle of the eight- 
eenth century, and established a paper 
manufactoiy. The first idea of the 
paper -making machine belonged to 
France, but Fourdrinier fully devel- 
oped it, and embodied it in a working 
plan. He labored at his invention for 
seven years, during which he was as- 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



413 



sisted by Ms brother Sealy and John 
Gamble. It was perfected in ISOt). 

GAGNIER, John, a celebrated 
Orientalist scholar, who, becoming 
converted to Protestantism, fled from 
France into England. The BishoiD 
of Worcester appointed him his chap- 
lain. In 1715 he was appointed Pro- 
fessor of Oriental Languages at Ox- 
ford. His son took the degree of M. 
A., and was appointed rector of 
Stranton in the diocese of Durham. 
Durham. 

GALAVAY, Eakl of. See p. 217, 
301. 

GAMBLER, a French refugee fam- 
ily settled at Canterbury, the name 
very frequently occurring in the reg- 
isters of the French chm-ch there. 
James Gambler, bom 1692, became 
distinguished as a barrister : he was a 
director of the French Hospital in 
1 729. He had two sons, James and 
John. The former rose to be a vice- 
admiral, the second became governor 
of the Bahama Islands, where his son 
James, afterward Lord Gambier, wal 
bom, 1756. He early entered the 
royal navy, and rose successively to 
the ranks of post-captain, vice-admi- 
nil, and admii-al. He was created a 
peer for his services in 1807. His 
elder brother Samuel was a commis- 
sioner of the navy ; and other mem- 
bers of the family held high rank in 
the same service. 

GARENCIERES, Theophilus 
DE, a doctor of medicine, native of 
Caen, who came over to England as 
physician to the French embassador, 
and embraced Protestantism. He 
was the author of several medical 
works. 

GARRET, Mark, afterward caUed 
Gerrard, the portrait painter, a refu- 
gee from Bruges in Flanders, from 
whence he was driven over into En- 
gland by the religious persecutions in 
the Low Countries. He was king's 
painter in 1618. 

GARRIGUE, see Bouffard. 

GASTIGNY, founder of the French 
Hospital in London. For notice, see 
p. 280. 

G A US SEN: there were several 



branches of this distinguished Prot- 
estant family in France. Haag men- 
tions those of Saumur, Bui-gundy, 
Guienne, and Languedoc. David 
Gaussen, who took refuge in Ireland 
in 1685, belonged to the Guienne 
branch. His descendants still flour- 
ish at Antrim, Belfast, and Dublin. 
The Gaussens who settled in England 
were from Languedoc. John Gaus- 
sen fled to Geneva at the Revocation. 
Of his sons, Peter and Francis came 
to England, where we find the former 
a director of the French Hospital in 
1741, treasm-er in 1745, and sub-gov- 
ernor in 1756. A nephew of these 
two brothers, named Peter, joined 
them in 1739, in his sixteenth year. 
He rose to eminence as a merchant ; 
became governor of the Bank of En- 
gland, and a director of the East In- 
dia Company. By his marriage with 
Miss Bosanquet he had a family of 
sons and daughters, among whom may 
be mentioned Samuel-Robert, colonel 
in the army, high sheriff of Hertford, 
and member of Parhament. Like 
other members of his family, he also 
held the office of director of the French 
Hospital. The Gaussens are stUl hon- 
orably known in London life. 

GAUTIER, N., a physician of Ni- 
ort, who took refuge in England at 
the Revocation. He was the author 
of several religious books. 

GENESTE, Louis, the owner of a 
large estate in Guienne, which he for- 
feited by adhering to the Protestant 
religion. He first fled into Holland 
and took seiwice under the Prince of 
Orange, whom he accompanied into 
England and Ireland, and fought in 
the battle of the Boyne in the regi- 
ment of Lord Lifford. After the pa- 
cification of Ireland, Geneste settled 
at Lisbum, and left behind him two 
sons and a daughter, among whose de- 
scendants may be pai*ticulai*ized the 
names of Hugh Stowell and Geneste, 
well known in the Christian world. 

GEORGES, Paul. Two refugees 
of this name were ministers of the 
French church at Canterbury. One 
of th-em, from Chartres, was minister 
in 1630. The other, a native of Pic- 



414 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



ardy, died in 1689, after a ministiy 
of 42 years. 

GERVAISE, Louis, a large ho- 
siery merchant at Paris, an elder of 
the Protestant church there. At the 
Revocation of the Edict, though sev- 
enty years of age, he was incarcerated 
in the Abbey of Gannat, from which 
he was transferred to that of Saint 
Magloii-e, then to the Oratory, and 
after that to the convent of Lagny 
and the castle of Angouleme. All 
methods of converting him having 
failed, he was finally banished from 
Prance in 1688, when he took refuge 
in London with his brother and his 
son, who had succeeded in escaping 
before him. 

GIBERT, Etienne, one of the last 
refugees from France for conscience' 
sake. He labored for some time as a 
pastor of the ' ' Church in the Desert ; " 
but the Bishop of Saintes having 
planned his capture, he fled into Switz- 
erland. Afterward in 17G3, we find 
him attending a secret synod in Fi-ance 
as deputy of Saintonge ; but at length, 
in 1771, he fled into England. He 
was minister of the French church of 
La Patente in London in 1776, and 
afterward of the Royal Chapel of St. 
James. He was finally presented with 
the rectory of St. Anch-ew's in the isl- 
and of Guernsey, where he died in 
1817. 

GOSSET, a Huguenot family who 
took refuge in Jersey, and aftei-ward 
in London. Isaac Gosset invented a 
composition of wax, in which he mod- 
eled porti'aits in an exquisite manner. 
His son, the Rev. Isaac Gosset, D.D., 
F.R.S., was eminent as a preacher, 
biblical critic, and book-collector. He 
died in 1812. 

GOULARD, James, Marquis of 
Vervans, a Huguenot refugee in En- 
gland, who died there in 1700. The 
marchioness, his wife, was apprehend- 
ed when about to set out to join her 
husband. She was shut up in the con- 
vent of the Ursulines at Angouleme, 
from which she was successively trans- 
fen-ed to the Abbey of Puyberlan in 
Poitou, to the Abbey of the Trinity at 
Poitiers, and finally to Port-Royal. 



Her courage at length succumbed and 
she conformed, thereby securing pos- 
session of the estates of her husband, 

GOYER, Petek, a refugee manu- 
factm-er from Picardy, who settled at 
Lisbum in Ireland. For notice of 
him, see p. 289. 

GRAVEROL, John, bom at 
Nismes, 1647, of a famous Protestant 
family. He early entered the minis- 
try, and became pastor of a chm-ch at 
Lyons. He fled from France at the 
Revocation, and took refuge in Lon- 
don. He was pastor of the French 
churches in Swallow Street and the 
QuaiTe. Graverol was a voluminous 
author. 

GROSTETE, Claude, a refugee 
pastor in London, minister of the 
French chm-ch in the Savoy. 

GROTE or DE GROOT. For no- 
tice of family, see p. 310. 

GUALY, a Protestant family of 
Rouergue. Peter, son of the Siem* de 
la Gineste, fled into England at the 
Revocation, with Ms Asife and three 
children — Paul, Fi'ancis, and Marga- 
ret. Paul entered the EngHsh army, 
and died a major general. Francis 
also entered the army, and eventually 
settled at Dublin, where his descend- 
ants survive. 

GXJERIN, a French refiigee family 
long settled at Rye, now represented 
by the Crofts. 

GUIDE, Philip, a French physi- 
cian of Paris, a native of Chalons-sm*- 
Saone, who took refuge in London at 
the Revocation. He was the author 
of several medical works. 

GUILLEMAKD, John, a reftigee 
in London from Champdeniers, where 
he had been minister. His descend- 
ants have been directors of the French 
Hospital at difierent times. 

GUILLOT. Several members of 
this family were officers in the navy 
of Louis XIV. They emigi-ated to 
Holland at the Revocation, and were 
presented by the Prince of Orange 
with commissions in his navy. Their 
descendants settled in Lisbum in 
Ireland. Others of the same name 
— Guillot and Gillett — of like French 
extraction, settled in England, where 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



415 



their descendants are still to be found 
at Birmingham and Sheffield, as well 
as at Glastonbmy, Exeter, and Ban- 
bmy. 

GUYON DE GEIS, William de, 
son of the Sieur de Pampelona, a 
Pi'otestant, fled into Holland at the 
llevocation. He took service under 
William of Orange, and saw much 
service in the campaigns in Piedmont 
and Gei-many, where he lost an arm. 
William III. gave him a retiring pen- 
sion, when he settled at PortarHngton, 
and died there in 1740. Several of 
liis descendants have been officers in 
the English army. The last, Count 
Guyon, entered the Austrian service, 
and distinguished himself in the Hun- 
garian rebellion of 1848. 

HARENC, a refugee family from 
the south of France. Benjamin was 
a director of the French Hospital in 
1765. He bought the estate of Foot- 
scray, Kent; his son married the 
daughter of Joseph Berens, Esq., and 
was a prominent county magisti-ate in 
Kent. 

HAZARD or HASAERT, Petek, 
a refligee in England from the perse- 
cutions in the Low Countries under 
the Duchess of Pai-ma. Returning 
on a visit to his native land, he was 
seized and burned alive in 1568. His 
descendants still survive in England 
and Ireland under the name of Has- 
sard. 

HERAULT, Louis, a refugee pas- 
tor from Normandy, who obtained a 
benefice in the English Church in the 
reign of Charles I. But he was so 
zealous a Royalist that he was forced 
to fly again into France, from which, 
however, he returned at the Restora- 
tion, and obtained a canonry at Can- 
terbury, which he enjoyed imtil his 
death. 

HERVART, Philibert, Baron 
DE HuNiNGUE, a refugee of high char- 
acter and station. In 1690 William 
m. appointed him his embassador at 
Geneva. He afterward settled at 
Southampton. He became governor 
of the French Hospital in 1720, to 
which he gave a sum of £4000, dying 
in the following year. 



HIPPOLITE, Ste., see Montolieu, 

HOUBLON, Peter, a refugee 
from Flanders because of his religion, 
who settled in England about the year 
1568. His son John became an emi- 
nent merchant in London, his grand- 
son James being the father of the Roy- 
al Exchange. Two sons of the latter, 
Sir James and Su- John, were alder- 
men of London ; while the foimer rep- 
resented the city in Parliament in 
1698, the latter sensed it as lord-may- 
or in 1695. Sir John was the first 
governor of the Bank of England ; he 
was also a commissioner of the Ad- 
miralty. Another brother, Abraham, 
was also a director and governor of 
the bank. His son, Sir Richai-d, left 
an only daughter, who married Hemy 
Temple, created Lord Pahnerston in 
1722, from whom the late Lord Pal- 
merston was lineally descended. 

HUDEL or UDEL, pastor of "Les 
Grecs" French church, London, the 
eldest son of a zealous Huguenot, con- 
fined in prison for a quai'ter of a cen- 
tury, and who was only released at the 
death of Louis XIV. 

HUGESSEN, James, a refugee 
from Dunkirk, who settled at Dover, 
The family is now represented by E. 
KnatchbuU Hugessen, M.P. For no- 
tice, see p. 309. 

JAN SEN, Theodore, youngest 
son of the Baron de Heez. The lat- 
ter was a victim to the cruelty of the 
Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, and 
sufi'ered death at the hands of the 
public executionei'. Theodore took 
refuge in France, from whence the 
family fled into England. His gi-and- 
son, also named Theodore, was kiiight- 
ed by William III., and created a bar- 
onet by Queen Anne. The famUy 
were higlily distinguished as mer- 
chants and bankers in London. Three 
of Sir Theodore's sons were baronets, 
two were members of Pai-liament, and 
one, Sir Stephen Theodore, was lord- 
mayor of London in 1755. 

JUSTEL, Henry, a great Protest- 
ant scholar, formerly secretary to 
Louis XIV., but a fugitive at the Re- 
vocation. On his arrival in England 
in 1684, the king appointed him royal 



41G 



HUGUENOT MEFUGEES. 



librarian. He was the author of nu- 
merous works. 

JORTIN, Eene, a refugee from 
Brittany. For notice of the family, 
see p. 320. 

LAEOUCHERE. Eor notice of, 
seep. 315. 

LA COND AMINE, an ancient and 
noble family belonging to the neigh- 
borhood of Nismes. Andre, the elder, 
was a Protestant, and held to his re- 
ligion ; Charles-Antoine abjured, and 
obtained possession of the family es- 
tate. Andre fled with his family, 
traveling by night only — the two 
youngest children swung in baskets 
across a horse or mule. They suc- 
ceeded in reaching the port of St. 
Malo, and crossed to Guernsey. The 
boy who escaped in the basket found- 
ed a family of British subjects. His 
son John became king's comptroller 
of Guernsey, and colonel of the Guern- 
sey militia ; and his descendants still 
sumve in England and Scotland. 

LALO, of the house of I)e La in 
Daupliiny, a brigadier in the British 
anny, killed at the battle of Malpla- 
quet. 

LA MEL0NNI:6rE, Isaac de 
MoNCEAU, SiEUR DE, a lieutenant 
colonel in the Erench anny, Avho fled 
from France at the Revocation, and 
joined the army of the Prince of Or- 
auge. He raised the regiment called 
after liim "La Melonniere's Foot." 
He serv^ed throughout the campaigns 
in Ireland and Flanders, and was 
raised to the rank of major general. 
Several of liis descendants have been 
distinguished officers in the British 
ai'my. 

LA MOTTE, Francis, a refugee 
from Ypres, in Flanders, who settled 
at Colchester as a manufactm-er of 
bays and sayes. His son John be- 
came an eminent and wealthy mer- 
chant of London, of which he was an 
aldennan. 

L' ANGLE, De. Foj: notice of, 
see p. 245. 

LA PIERRE, a Huguenot family 
of Lyons. Marc-Conrad was a mag- 
istrate, and councilor to the Parlia- 
ment at Grenoble — a man highly es- 



teemed for his learning and integrity. 
He left France at the Revocation, and 
settled in England. One of his sons 
was the minister of Spring Gardens 
French church in 1724 ; and Pierre 
de la Pien-e was a director of the 
French Hospital in 1740. 

LA PILONNIERE, a Jesuit con- 
verted to Protestantism, who took ref- 
uge in England about 1716. He was 
the author of several works relating to 
his conversion, and also on English 
histoiy. 

LA PRIMAUDAYE, a great Prot- 
estant fiimily of Anjou. Several of 
them took refuge in England. In 
1 740 Pierre de la Primaudaye was a 
governor of the French Hospital, and 
others of the same name afterward 
held that office. 

LA ROCHE, a refugee from Bor- 
deaux, originally named Crothau-e, 
whose son became M. P. for Bodmhi 
in 1727. His grandson, Sii" James 
Laroche, Bart., also sat for the same 
borough in 1768. 

LAROCHEFOUCALD (Freder- 
ick Charles de). Count de Roye, an 
able officer of Louis XIV., field-mar- 
shal under Tm'enne, who seiTed in 
the great campaigns between 1672 
and 1683. He left France at the Rev- 
ocation, first entering the Danish sen- 
ice, in Avhich he held the post of grand 
marshal. He afterwai-d settled in En- 
gland. He died at Bath in 1690. His 
son Frederick-William was a colonel 
of one of the six French regiments 
sent to Portugal under Schomberg. 
He was promoted to the rank of ma- 
jor general, and was raised to the 
peerage (for life) under the title of 
Earl of LifFord, in Ireland. 

LAROUCHEFOUCALD, Fr-\n- 
cis DE, son of the Baron de Monten- 
dre. He escaped from the abbey of 
the Canons of Saint Victor, where he 
had been shut up for "conversion," 
and fled to England. He entered 
the English army, seiwed in Ireland, 
where he was master general of artil- 
leiy, and rose to the rank of field 
marshal. 

LA ROCHE-GUILHEM, Melle 
DE, a voluminous writer of romances 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



4i: 



of the Scuderi school, and a Protest- 
ant, who first took refuge in Holland, 
and aftei-ward settled in England 
about 1697, though his works contin- 
ued to be published abroad, mostly in 
Amsterdam. 

LARPENT, John de, a refugee 
from Caen, m Normandy, who fled 
into England at the Revocation. His 
son and grandson were employed in 
the Poreign Office. The two sons of 
the latter were P. S. Larpent, judge 
advocate general in Spain under the 
Buke of Wellington, and Sir George 
Gerard de Hochepied Larpent, Bart. 

LA TOMBE, Thomas, a Protest- 
ant refiigee from Turcoigne, in the 
Low Countries, who settled at Nor- 
wich about 1558. His son, of the 
same name, was a thriving merchant 
in London in 1C34. 

LA TOXJCHE, a noble Protestant 
family of the Blesois, between Blois 
and Orleans, where they possessed 
considerable estates. At the Revoca- 
tion, Da\dd Digues de la Touche fled 
into Holland, and joined the army of 
the Prince of Orange. He served in 
the Irish campaigns, afterward set- 
tUng in Dublin, where he founded the 
well-kno^vn bank which still exists. 
His sons Da^id and James founded 
good famines in Ireland. From them 
are descended the famiHes of La 
Touche, of Marlay, of Hamstown, of 
Sans-Souci, and of Bellevue, Many 
members of the family have sat in 
Parliament, and have intermai'ried 
with the nobility. N. Latouche, a ref- 
ugee in London, was the author of an 
excellent French gi-ammar. 

LA TRANCHE, Fkkderick de, a 
Huguenot gentleman, who took refuge 
in England shortly after the massacre 
of St. Bartholomew. He first settled 
in Northumberland, from whence the 
family afterward removed to Ireland, 
and founded the French fiunily, the 
head of which is the Earl of Clan- 
carty. Many high dignitaries of the 
Church, and officers in the army and 
civil service, have belonged to this 
family. The present Ai'chbishbp of 
Dublin is a Trench as well as a Chen- 
evix (which see), thus being doubly 

D 



a Huguenot by his descent. The 
Power-Keatiugs ai-e a branch of the 
Trench family. The Earl of Ashtoun 
is the head of another branch. 

LA TREMOUILLE, Charlotte 
DE, wife of James Stanley, Earl of 
Derby. The countess was a Protest- 
ant — the daughter of Claude de la 
Tremouille and his wife the Princess 
of Orange. Sir "Walter Scott incor- 
rectly makes the countess to have been 
a Roman Catholic. 

LAVAL, Etiennb-Abel, author 
of a History of the Reformation and 
of the Reformed Churches of France^ 
and minister of the French church in 
Castle Street,. London,, about the year 
1730. 

LA VALLADE, pastor of the 
French chiirch at lisbum, in Ire- 
land, during forty years. He left an 
only daughter, who married, in 1737, 
George RusseU, Esq., of Lisbum, 
whosfr descendants survive. 

LA YARD, originally Lajakd, a 
refugee family from Montpellier. An- 
toine de Lajard was controller general 
of the king's farms, and at his death 
in 1G81, his family, being Protest- 
ants, fled from France into England. 
Pierre Layard became a major in the 
English anny. His son Daniel-Peter 
was a celebrated doctor, and held the 
appointment of physician to the Dow- 
ager Princess of Wales. He was the 
author of numerous works on medi- 
cine ; among others, of a treatise on 
the cattle distemper, which originally 
appeared in the Philosophical Trans- 
actions^ and has since been frequently 
reprinted. The doctor had three sons 
— Charles-Peter, afterward prebend- 
ary of Worcester and dean of Bristol ; 
Anthony -Lewis and John- Thomas, 
who both entered the army, and rose, 
the one to the rank of general, and 
the other to that of lieutenant general. 
Austin Layard, M. P., so weU known 
for his exploration of the ruins of 
Nineveh, is grandson of the above 
dean of Bristol. Two cousins are in 
the Church. The head of the family 
is Bro^vnlow Yilliers Layard, Esq., of 
Riversdale, near Dubhn. 

LE COURRAYER, Pierke- 



1-18 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



FRAN901S, a canon of St. Genevieve, 
at Paris, afterward canon of Oxford. 
He was a very learned man, and a vo- 
luminous author. Having maintained 
as a Eoman Catholic the vaHdity of 
ordination by the bishops of the An- 
glican Chm-ch because of their un- 
broken succession fi-om the apostles, 
he was denounced by his own Church 
as a heretic, and excommunicated. In 
1728 Le Com-rayer took refuge in En- 
gland, and was cordially welcomed by 
Wake, then Archbishop of Canter- 
bury. The University of Oxford con- 
ferred on him the degree of D.D. 
Although he officiated as canon of Ox- 
ford, he avowed to the last that he had 
not changed his religion ; and that it 
was the Eoman Catholic Church, and 
not he, that was in fault, in having de- 
parted from the doctrines and prac- 
tices of the early Chm-ch. Le Cour- 
rayer died in London in 1776. 

LE EANU, a Norman Protestant 
family. Etienne le Panu, of Caen, 
having, in 1657, married a lady who 
professed the Roman Catholic relig- 
ion, her relatives claimed to have her 
children brought up in the same relig- 
ion. Le Fanu nevertheless had three 
of them baptized by Protestant min- 
isters. The fom-th was seized and 
baptized by the Roman Catholic vicar. 
At the mother's death the maternal 
uncle of the children claimed to bring 
them up, and to set aside their father, 
because of his being a Protestant, and 
the magistrates of Caen ordered Le 
Fanu to give up the children accord- 
ingly. He appealed to the Parliament 
of Rouen in 1671, and they confiraied 
the decision of the magistrates. Le 
Fanu refused to give up his children, 
and was consequently cast into prison, 
where he lay for three years. He 
eventually succeeded in making his 
escape into England, and finally set- 
tled in Ireland, where his descendants 
still survive. 

LE FEVRE. Many refugees of 
this name settled in England. The 
Lefevres of Anjou were celebrated as 
chemists and physicians. Nicholas, 
physician to Louis XIV., and demon- 
strator of chemistry at the Jardin des 



Plantes, was invited over to England 
by Charles II., and made physician 
and chemist to the king in 1660. Se- 
bastian Lefevre, M.D., of Anjou, was 
admitted Hcentiate of the London Col- 
lege of Physicians in 168-t. A branch 
of the family settled in Spitalfields, 
where they long carried on the silk 
manufacture. From this branch the 
present Lord Eversley is descended. 
For farther notice, see p. 315. 

LEFROY, Anthony, a native of 
Cambray, who took refuge in England 
from the persecutions in the Low 
Countries about the year 1579, and 
settled at Canterbmy, where his de- 
scendants followed the business of 
silk-dying for about 150 years, until 
the trade was removed to Spitalfields. 
A descendant of the family, also called 
Anthony, was a merchant of Leghorn, 
and died in 1779. From him the Irish 
family of the name is descended. This 
Anthony was a great antiquary, his 
collection of 6600 coins being one of 
the finest ever made by a private per- 
son. He was an intimate friend of 
Thomas HoUis, and is frequently men- 
tioned in his memoirs. Colonel An- 
thony Lefroy, of Limerick, represent- 
ed the family during the latter half of 
last century. His son, the Right Hon. 
Thomas Lefroy, chief justice of Ire- 
land, recently retired from the bench. 
Anthony Lefroy, M. P. , and Brigade 
General Lefroy, R. A., are members 
of the same family. 

LE GOULON, a pupil of Yauban, 
and a refugee at the Revocation ; gen- 
eral of artilleiy in the anny of Wil- 
liam III. He served with distinction 
in Ireland, Gennany, and Italy, dying 
abroad. 

LE MOINE, Abraham, son of a 
refugee from Caen. He was chaplain 
to the Dulce of Portland and rector of 
Eversley, Wilts, the author of numer- 
ous works. He died in 1760. 

L'ESCURY, see Collot. 

LESTANGj a Protestant family of 
Poitou, one of whom acted as aid-de- 
camp to the Prince of Orange on his 
invasion of England, Another, Louis 
deLestang, settled at Canterbuiywith 
his family. 



EUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



419 



LE SUEXIB, the refugee sculptor 
who executed the fine bronze eques- 
trian statue of Charles I. at Charing 
Cross. Another work of his, still pre- 
served, is the bronze statue of the Earl 
of Pembroke in the picture-gaUeiy at 
Oxford- The statue of Charles was 
sold by the Parliament for old metal, 
when it was purchased by Jean Rivet, 
supposed to be another refugee, and 
preserved by him until after the Resto- 
ration. A refugee (named Le Sueur) 
was minister of the Fi'ench church at 
Canterbmy. 

LE THIEULLIER, John, a Prot- 
estant refugee fi'om Valenciennes. 
His grandson was a celebrated Lon- 
don merchant, knighted in 1687. 

LE VASSOR, Michael, a refugee 
from Orleans, who entered the English 
Chm'ch, and held a benefice in the 
county of Northampton, where he 
died. He was the author of several 
works, among others of a History of 
Louis XIIL, wliich gave gi'eat of- 
fense to Louis XIV. 

LIGONIER, a Protestant family 
of Castres. Jean Louis was a cele- 
brated general in the Enghsh service ; 
he was created Lord Ligonier and 
Baron Inniskillen. Dm-ing his life 
he was engaged in nineteen pitched 
battles and t\venty-three sieges, with- 
out ever having received a wound. 
One of his brothers, Antoine, was a 
major in the English army ; and an- 
other, who was raised to tlie rank of 
brigadier, was mortally wounded at 
the battle of Ealkirk. Eor farther 
notice of Lord Ligonier, see p. 228. 

LOGIER, Jean-Bernard, a refu- 
gee musician, inventor of the method 
of musical notation which bears his 
name ; settled as a teacher of music 
at Dublin, where he died. 

LOMBART, Pierre, a celebrated 
French engraver, who took refuge in 
England in the reign of Charles L, 
and remained there until the early pe- 
riod of the Restoration. During t^at 
time he produced a large number of 
highly-esteemed engravings. He died 
at Paris, and was interred in the Prot- 
estant cemetery at Charenton a few 
years before the Revocation. 



LUARD, Robert Abraham, a 
Huguenot refugee from Caen, who 
settled in London. His" son, Peter- 
Abraham, became a great Hamburg 
merchant. George Augustus Luard, 
Esq., of Blyborough Hall, is the pres- 
ent head of the family, to which Major 
Luai-d, of the Mote, Tunbridge, also 



MAITTAIRE, Michael, a cele- 
brated philologist, linguist, and bibli- 
ographer, one of the masters of West- 
minster School at the beginning of the 
eighteenth centtuy. He was an able 
wiiter, principally on classical and re- 
ligious subjects. Haag gives a list of 
sixteen of his works. 

MAJENDIE: several refugees 
from Beam of this name fled iato 
England at the Revocation. One of 
them became pastor of the Erench 
church at Exeter. His son Jean- 
Jacques Majendie, D.D., was pastor 
of the Erench church in St. Martin's 
Lane, and afterward of the Savoy. 
The son of this last became Bishop 
of Bangor, and afterward of Chester. 

MANGIN : several refugees of this 
name from Metz settled in Ireland. 
Paul became established at Lisbum, 
where he manied Madeleine, the 
daughter of Louis Crommelia. 

MARCET, a refugee family from 
Meaux, originally settled at Geneva, 
from whence Alexander came over to 
London about the end of last centuiy, 
and settled as a physician. He was 
one of the founders of the Medico-Chi- 
rurgical Society, physician to Guy's 
Hospital, and the author of many val- 
uable works on medicine and chemis- 
try. Mrs. Marcet was also the author 
of many esteemed works on political 
economy and natiural history. 

MARIE, Jean, minister of the 
Protestant ehm-ch at Lion-sur-Mer, 
who took refuge in England after the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, and be- 
came pastor of the Fi'ench church at 
Norwich. His son Nathaniel was min- 
ister of the French church in London. 

MARION, Elie, a refugee from 
the Cevennes. He joined his friend 
Cavaher in England. Francis Ma- 
rion, the celebi-ated general in the 



420 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



American War of Independence, is 
said to have been one of his descend- 
ants. 

MARTINEAU, Gaston, a sur- 
geon of Dieppe, who fled into England 
at the ReA'ocation, and settled at Nor- 
wich. His son David was also a skill- 
ful surgeon. Many of their descend- 
ants still exist, and some of them are 
highly distinguished in modem En- 
glish literature. 

MASERES, Francis, a celebrated 
judge and mathematician. At the 
Revocation, the grandfather of Ma- 
seres escaped into Holland, took serv- 
ice in the army of William of Orange, 
and came over to England in the regi- 
ment of Schomberg, in which he served 
as a Keutenant. He was afterward em- 
ployed in Portugal, where he I'ose to 
the rank of colonel. His son studied 
medicine at Cambridge, took his de- 
gree of doctor, and practiced in Lon- 
don. Erancis Maseres, the grandson 
of the refugee, also studied at Cam- 
bridge ; and after distinguishing him- 
self in tlie mathematics, he embraced 
the profession of the law. Besides 
his eminence as a judge,, he was an 
able and industrious author. Haag 
gives the titles of fifteen books pub- 
hshed by him on different subjects. 
For faither notice, see p. 323. 

MASSXJE, Henri de, Mai-quis de 
Ruvigny. For notice of, see p. 208, 
314 {note) ; and of his son Henry, Eaii 
of Galway, p. 217, 301. 

MATHY, Matthevp-, a celebrated 
physician and author. After a resi- 
dence in Holland, he settled in En- 
gland about tlie middle of last centu- 
ry. He was admitted a fellow of the 
Royal Society, of which he was ap- 
pointed secretary in 1758. He was 
afterward appointed librarian of the 
British Museum, in which office he 
was succeeded by his son. 

MATURIN, Gabriel, a refugee 
pastor who escaped from France after 
having been shut up in the Bastile for 
twenty-six years. He settled in Ire- 
land, where he arrived a cripple. His 
son Peter became dean of Eallala, and 
his grandson dean of Saint Patrick's, 
Dublin. From him descended the 



Rev. C. Matm-in, senior fellow, Trin- 
ity College, Dublin, rector of Fanet ; 
the Rev. C. R. Matm-in, an eloquent 
preacher, author oi Bertram ; and Ga- 
briel Maturin, Esq., Washington. 

MAUDUIT, Isaac, descended from 
a Norman refugee settled at Exeter as 
a merchant. Isaac was a dissenting 
minister at Bennondsey. He was the 
father of Jasper Mauduit, Esq., of 
Hackney. 

MAURY, Matthew, a refugee 
gentleman from Castle Mam-on, in 
Gascony, settled in London for a time, 
where his son James was ordained a. 
minister. The family afterward emi- 
gi-ated to Vu-ginia, U. S., where their 
descendants survive. Captain Mamy, 
LL.D., belongs to the family. 

MAYERNE, Theodore de, a 
celebrated physician, belonging to a 
Lyons family, originally from Pied- 
mont. He studied mediciue at Hei- 
delberg and Montpellier, where he 
took his degree of M.D. in 1595. He 
opened a medical school at Paris, in 
which he delivered lectures, and ob- 
tained an extensive pi-actice. Henry 
IV. appointed him bis first physician. 
After the assassination of that prince, 
Marie de Medicis endeavored to con- 
vert Mayernefi*om Protestantism; but 
he was firai, and consequently lost the 
pati'onage of the court. James I. in- 
vited him over to England, and ap- 
pointed him his first physician. The 
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge 
conferred honorary degi'ees upon him, 
and he obtained a large practice in 
London. After the execution of 
Charles I. he retked into private life, 
and died at Chelsea in 1655. 

MAZIERES, De, a Protestant 
family of Aunis, north of Saintonge, 
several members of whom fled from 
France at the Revocation. Peter was 
a heutenant in the French army, and 
afterward joined the army of William 
of Orange. He settled at Youghal, 
in Ireland, where he died in 1746. 
Other members of tlie family settled 
at Cork, where they left numerous de- 
scendants. 

MERCIER, Philip, a portrait 
painter, bom at Berlin., of a French 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



421 



refugee family, and afterward settled 
in London, where he died in 1760. 
He was patronized by Frederick, 
Prince of Wales. Many of his por- 
traits were engi*aved by Simon, Faber, 
Avril, and Heudelot (refugee engrav- 
ers in London), as well as by English 
artists. 

MESNAIID, Jean, one of the pas- 
tors of the Protestant church of Cha- 
renton, at Paris, from which he fled 
into HoUand at the Revocation. His 
brother Philip, pastor of the Church 
of Saintes, was fined 10,000 livres and 
condemned to perpetual banishment ; 
his church was demohshed and a cross 
set up on its site. Mesnard was in- 
vited to Copenhagen by the queen, 
Charlotte Amelia, and appointed pas- 
tor of the French chm-ch there. He 
afterwai-d came over to England, and 
became minister of the Chapel Royal 
of St. James in 1700. He was ap- 
pointed a director of the French Hos- 
pital in 1718 ; he died in 1727. 

METTAYER, John, minister of 
the Patente in Soho ; aftei-wai'd min- 
ister of the French church at Thorpe- 
le-Soken, where he died in 1707. 

IMEUSNIER, Philip, a refugee 
painter of architectm*al subjects, who 
studied under Nicholas de Larquil- 
liere, another refugee artist. 

MISSON, Maximilien, one of the 
Protestant judges in the "Chamber 
of the Edict" in the Parliament of 
Paris. At the Revocation he fled 
into England, and was selected by the 
Duke of Ormond as tutor to his grand- 
son. Misson traveled with him 
thi'ough Em-ope, and afterward pub- 
lished several books of travels. 

MISSY, CiESAn DB, son of a refu- 
gee merchant from Saintonge estab- 
lished at Berlin, who studied for the 
ministry, and came over to England 
in 1731, when he was appointed min- 
ister of the French chm-ch of the Sa- 
voy, in London, and afterward of St. 
James's. He was the author of many 
highly-prized works. 

MOIVRE, Abraham. For notice 
of, see p. 235. 

MOLENIER, Stephen, a refugee 
pastor from the Isle of Jourdain, who 



fled into England, and became minis- 
ter of the French church at Stone- 
house, Plymouth, 

MONCEAU, Isaac de, see La Me- 
lomdire. 

MONTENDRE, De, see Laroche- 
foucauld. 

MONTOLIEU, DE Saint Hippo- 
lite. Of this noble family, David 
came to England with the army of 
William IIL, under whom he also 
served in Flanders. He was made a 
colonel and afterward a brigadier gen- 
eral. His descendants still survive in 
several noble and gentle families. 

MOTHE, Claude de la, refugee 
minister of the chm'ch in the Savoy. 
For notice of, see p. 248. 

MOTTEAUX, Peter Anthony, 
poet and translator, a refugee from 
Rouen, who fled into England, and 
settled in London in 1660. He first 
translated and published Don Quixote 
and Rabelais into English, which were 
received with great favor. He also 
published several volumes of poetry 
and a tragedy, "Beauty in Distress." 
Notwithstanding his success as an En- 
glish author, he abandoned literature 
for commerce, and made a considera- 
ble fortime by a series of happy specu- 
lations. He died in 1717. 

NADAULD, a Huguenot family 
who settled at Ashford-in-the-Water, 
in Derbyshire, shortly after the Revo- 
cation. The grandson of the original 
refugee was the Rev, Thomas Nadauld, 
for upward of fifty years incumbent 
of Belper and Tm-nditch. One of the 
members of the family was a celebra- 
ted watch-maker and silversmith. An- 
other was a sculptor, who was employ- 
ed by the Duke of Devonshire to exe- 
cute some of the most important works 
at Chatsworth Palace. Others were 
clergymen, surgeons, and officers in 
the British army. 

OUVRY, James, a refugee from 
the neighborhood of Dieppe about the 
period of the Revocation. His fami- 
ly became settled in Spitalfields, and 
were owners of freeholds there in the 
early part of last century. Francis 
Ouvry, ti-easm-er of the Society of An- 
tiquaries, belongs to the family ; also 



422 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



Francisca I. Ouvry, author of Henri 
de Rohan, or ike Huguenot Refugee, 
and other works. 

PAGET, Valerian, a refugee from 
France after the massacre of St. Bai- 
tholomew, who settled in Leicester- 
shhre and founded a flourishing family, 
the head of which is Thomas Paget, 
Esquire, of Humberstown. Charles, 
lately M. P. for Nottingham, belongs 
to the fanuly. 

PAPILLON, David, a refugee 
from Avranches, where he was im- 
prisoned for three years because of his 
religion. He afterward fled into En- 
gland, where his family prospered. 
Different members of them have since 
represented the city of London, Do- 
ver, Ronmey, and Colchester in Par- 
liament. The present head of the 
family is David PapiHon, Esquire, of 
Crowhurst, Sussex. 

PAP IN, Denis. For notice of, 
see p. 232. 

PAUL, Lewis, inventor of spinning 
by rollers. For notice of, see p. 327. 

PECHELL, Samuel, a refugee 
from Montauban, in Languedoc, who 
settled in Dubhn. From him have 
descended Samuel Pechell, Master in 
Chancery, and Lieutenant Colonel 
Paul Pechell, of Pagglesham, Essex, 
created a baronet in 1797. Two oth- 
er descendants of the family have been 
rear-admirals, and occupied seats in 
the House of Commons. 

PERRIN, Count, a Huguenot ref- 
ugee from Nouere, where he had large 
possessions. He originally settled at 
Lisbmn, in Ireland, from which he 
afterward removed to Waterford, and 
founded the family to which Justice 
Perrin, of the Irish Bench, belonged. 

PETIT, Le Sieur, an officer in the 
Red Dragoons of the Prince of Or- 
ange on his expedition to England. 
Many descendants of the family have 
served in the British army, and held 
offices in Church and State. 

PINETON, Rev. James, DE Cham- 
BBUN. For notice of, see p. 243. 

PORTAL, an ancient noble Prot- 
estant family of Toulouse. For no- 
tice of the refugees of the name in 
England, see p. 265. 



PRELLEUR, Peter, a musical 
composer, born in London of a French 
refugee family. He began life as a 
writing-master in Spitalfields, after 
which he appHed himself exclusively 
to music. He composed a number of 
pieces for the theatre in Goodman's 
Fields, in which David GaiTick, or 
Garrigue, the son of another French 
refugee, made his first appearance as 
an actor. Prelleur also held the of- 
fice of organist of the church of .St. 
Alban's, and afterward of Christ 
Church, Middlesex. 

PRIMROSE, Gilbert, of Scotch 
origin, who settled in France in 1601 
as minister of the Protestant church 
of Mirambeau, and afterwai'd of Bom-- 
deaux. In 1623 Louis XTTT. ordered 
his banishment from France, when he 
proceeded to London, and became 
minister of the French church in 
Threadneedle Street ; after which we 
find him appointed chaplain to the 
king, next Canon of Windsor, and 
eventually Bishop of Ely. His two 
sons, David and James, were remark- 
able men in then* time, the one as a 
theologian, the other as a physician. 
Both were authors of numerous works. 

PRYME, Matthew de la, a ref- 
ugee from Ypres, in Flanders, dming 
the persecutions of the Duke of Alva. 
He settled, with many others of his 
countrymen, in the Level of Hatfield 
Chace, after the same had been drain- 
ed by Vei-muyden. His son was the 
Rev. Abraham de la Pryme. George 
Pryme, Esq., late M. P., and profess- 
or of political economy at Cambridge, 
is lineally descended from the above. 

PUISSAR, Louis Jasies, Marquis 
of, was appointed colonel of the 24th 
regiment in 1695, and afterward 
served in Flanders. 

PUSEY, see Bouveries. 

RABOTEAU, John Charles, a 
refugee from Pont-Gibaud, near Ro- 
chelle, who settled in Dublin, and 
prospered as a wine-merchant. For 
notice of his nieces, the Misses Rabo- 
teau, see p. 166. 

RADNOR, Earl of, see Bouveries. 

RAPIN DE THOYRAS, Paul. 
For notice of, see p. 227. 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



423 



RAVANEL, SAiiTJEL de, son of a 
Protestant gentleman of Picardy who 
came into England before the Revo- 
cation. He aftei-ward mai-ried the 
niece of Marlborough. Hozier sup- 
poses that Edward Ravenel, director 
of the Erench Hospital in 1740, was 
his son. 

REBOW : a refugee of this name 
from Flanders, settled at Colchester, 
from whom Sir Isaac Rebow, knighted 
by King William (whom he entertain- 
ed), was descended. Several mem- 
bers of the family have since repre- 
sented the toTVTi in Parliament. 

RIVAL, Peter, pastor of several 
of the Erench churches in London, 
and lastly of that of the Savoy. He 
was a copious author and a vehement 
controversialist. He died about 1728. 

ROBETHON, the Right Hon. 
John, a Erench refugee in London. 
His brother remained in Paris, and 
was attorney general of the Mint in 
1722. William m. made John Eo- 
bethon his private secretary. He was 
afterward made secretaiy to the em- 
bassies and privy councilor. In 1721 
he was elected governor of the French 
Hospital. He died in the following 
yeai'. 

ROCHE, Louis, a refogee manu- 
factm-er who settled at Lisburn at the 
same time that Louis Crommelin es- 
tablished himself there. He became 
an extensive merchant ; and liis de- 
scendants ai-e now among the first in- 
habitants of Belfast. 

ROCHEBLAVE, Heney db, pas- 
tor in succession of the French church- 
es at Greenwich, Swallow Street, Hun- 
gerford, the Quarre, St, James's, and, 
last of all, of Dublin, where he died in 
1709. 

ROMAINE, a Huguenot refugee 
who settled at Hartlepool as a corn- 
dealer ; father of the celebrated Rev. 
W. Romaine, author of the Triumph 
of Faith, for notice of whom, see p. 
322. 

ROMILLY. For notice of this 
family, see p. 315, 335. 

ROUBILLARD, see ChampagnL 

ROUBILLIAC, Louis -Francis, 
the sculptor; born at Lyons about 



1G95. Haag says he was probably 
the son of a "new convert, "and that 
he only returned to the religion' of his 
fathers. His works in England are 
well known. He was buried in the 
French church of St. Martin's -le- 
Grand in 1762. 

ROUMIEU, a Huguenot refugee in 
England, descended from Roumieu, 
the Albigensian hero. The present 
representative of the family is Robert- 
Le-\vis Roumieu, the celebrated archi- 
tect. 

ROUQUET, James, son of a 
French Protestant condemned to the 
galleys for life. The young man 
reached London, and was educated at 
Merchant Tailors' school. He en- 
tered the Church, but became a fol- 
lower of Wesley, and superintended 
Wesley's school at Kingswood. He 
eventually accepted the cmracy of St. 
Werbm-gh, Bristol, where he labored 
\vith great zeal in reclaiming outcasts, 
and died in 1776. 

ROUQUET, 2Sr., a painter in enam- 
el, belonging to a French refugee fam- 
ily of Geneva, who spent the greater 
part of his life in England. He was 
an author as weU as an artist, and 
■wTote an account of The State of Art 
in Enf/Iand, which was pubhshed at 
Paris ia 1755. 

ROUSSEAU, Jajees, an excellent, 
landscape painter, mostly in fresco, 
son of a joiner at Paris, where he was 
boni in 1630. He studied art in Italy, 
and on his return to France his repu- 
tation became great. He was em- 
ployed in decorating the palaces at 
Versailles and Marley, and in other 
important works. In 1662 he was ad- 
mitted a member of the Royal Acad- 
emy of Painting, and was afterwaid 
elected a member of the council. But 
in 1661, when the persecution of the 
Protestants set in with increased se- 
verity, Rousseau was excluded from 
the Academy because of his being a 
Huguenot. At the same time, eight 
other Protestant artists were expelled. 
At the Revocation of the Edict, Rous- 
seau first took refuge in Switzerland, 
from whence he proceeded to Holland, 
and afterward to England, where he 



424 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



settled. The Duke of Montague em- 
ployed him to execute the decorations 
of his town house, on the site of the 
present British Museum. It is also 
said that he superintended the erec- 
tion of the building. He executed 
other fresco-paintings on the walls of 
Hampton Court, where they are still 
to be seen. Died in London in 1693. 

ROUSSEAU, Samuel, an Orien- 
talist scholar, the son of a Prench ref- 
ugee settled in London. He was an 
extensive contributor to the Gentle- 
man's Magazine on classical subjects, 
as well as the author of several works 
on the Persian and Hindostanee lan- 
guages. 

ROUSSELL, Isaac, a French 
Protestant refugee from Quilleboeuf, 
in Normandy, who fled into England 
in 1699. He settled in London, and 
became a silk manufacturer in Spital- 
fields. The present representative of 
the family is John Beuzeville Byles, 
Esq., of Henley-on-Thames. 

ROYE, De, see Larochefoucauld. 

RUVIGNY, Marquis of. For no- 
tice of, see p. 208 and 314 {note). 

SAUIilN, Jacques. For notice of, 
as well as other members of the fam- 
ily, see p. 241, 320. 

SAY, a French Protestant family 
of Languedoc, of whom several mem- 
bers settled in England. One of them, 
Samuel Say, wlio died in 1743, was a 
dissenting minister in London ; an- 
other, Francis -Samuel, was minister 
of the French church in Wheeler 
Street. Thomas Say emigrated to 
America, and joined the Quakers ; 
and his son was the celebrated natu- 
ral historian of the United States. 
Jean Baptiste Say, the celebrated 
writer on political economy, belonged 
to the same family. 

SCHOMBERG, Dukes of. For 
notices of Frederick -Armand, 1st 
duke, see p. 189, 211, 216 ; Charles, 
2d duke, p. 219 ; Menard, 3d duke, p. 
214-15, 221. 

SIMON, a family of artists origm- 
ally from Normandy, who belonged 
to the Protestant Church of Charen- 
ton, near Paris. John, a refugee in 
London, acquired great reputation as 



an engraver. He was employed by 
Sir Godfrey Kneller to engrave the 
portraits painted by him, a long list of 
which, as well as of his other works, 
is given by Haag. Simon died at 
London in 1755. 

TASCHER: several refugees of 
this name were ministers of French 
chm'ches in London at the beginning 
of the eighteenth century. Pierre de 
Tascher was a director of the French 
Hospital in 1727. 

TEULON or THOLON, an an- 
cient family of Nismes, descended 
from Marc Teulon, Sieur de Guimal. 
Peter and Anthony fled from France 
at the time of the Revocation, and set- 
tled at Greenwich. Peter went into 
Ireland, and founded the Cork branch 
of the family, to which the late Col- 
onel George Teulon, one of the aids- 
de-camp to the Duke of Wellington at 
Waterloo, Lieutenant Colonel Chai-les 
Teulon, and Major Peter Teulon, be- 
longed. The present representatives 
of the family in Ireland are B. Teulon, 
Esq., of Bandon ; Thomas, a major in 
the army ; and Charles-Peter, a bar- 
rister. Anthony Teulon, of Green- 
Avich, married Frances de la Roche, 
and left descendants. Among the 
present representatives of this branch 
may be named Samuel Saunders and 
Wilham Milford Teulon, the eminent 
architects, and SejTnom- Teulon, Esq. , 
ofLimpsfield Park, Surrey. Another 
branch is settled in Scotland, repre- 
sented by Cajitains James and John 
Teulon. Pien-e Emile Teulon, of 
Nismes, president of the council un- 
der the government of.Louis Philippe, 
is supposed to belong to a branch of 
the family remaining in France. 

TEXTARD, Leon, Sieur des 
Meslars, a refugee who feigned to 
abjm-e under the terror of the dragon- 
nades, and at length fled to England 
with his wife, a sister of James Fon- 
taine, whom no teiTor could shake. 
They settled in London, together with 
other members of the. family. 

TEXTAS : two ministers of this 
name, related to the family of Cha- 
mier, took refuge in England after the 
Revocation. 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



425 



THELUSSON, originaUy a Prot- 
estant family of Lyons, who took ref- 
uge in Geneva. Peter Thelusson, son 
of John (an illustrious citizen of the 
Republic), settled in London in 1750, 
and acquired a large fortune by trade. 
He sat in Parliament some time for 
Malmesbury. His son, Peter-Isaac, 
was created Baron Rendlesham. 

THORIUS, Raphael, a physician 
and celebrated Latin poet, bom in 
France, but a refugee in England be- 
cause of his religion. He died in 
1625, leaving behind him a son, John, 
who studied medicine at Oxford, and 
became fellow of the College of Phy- 
sicians of Dublin in 1627. He was 
the author of several medical works. 

TRENCH, see La Tranche. 

TRYON, Peter, a wealthy refu- 
gee from Planders, driven out by the 
persecutions of the Duke of Alva. 
He succeeded in biinging with him 
into England so large a sum as 
£60,000. The family made jnany al- 
liances with English families of import- 
ance. Samuel, son of the original ref- 
ugee, was in 1621 made a baronet of 
Layer Marney, in Essex. The bai-o- 
netcy expired in 1724. 

TURQUAND, Peter, a Protest- 
ant refugee fi'om Ch^t'elherault, near 
Poitiers, who settled in London, where 
his descendants still flourish. 

TYSSEN, Erancis, a refugee from 
Ghent, in Elanders. His son, of the 
same name, became a thiiving mer- 
chant of London. The family is at 
present represented by W. G. Tyssen 
Amhm-st, of Eoulden, in Norfolk, lord 
of the manor of Hackney. 

VANACKER, John, a refugee 
from Lille, in Elanders, who became 
a merchant in London. His gi-and- 
son Nicholas, a Turkey merchant, was 
created a baronet in 1700. 

VANDERPUTT, Henrt, bom in 
Antwerp ; fled to England from the 
religious persecution in the Low Coun- 
tries in 1568, and became a London 
merchant. BCis great-gi*andson Peter, 
also a London merchant, was sheriff 
of London in 1684, and created a bar- 
onet in 1723. 

VANLORE, Peter, a Protestant 



refugee from Utrecht. He became a 
celebrated London merchant, and was 
created a baronet in 1628. 

VARENNES, John be, a Erench 
refugee, whose descendants remain in 
England, Ezekiel G. Varennes is a 
sui-geon in Essex. 

VERNEUIL, John, a native of 
Bordeaux, from which city he fled, on 
account of his rehgion, to England. 
He was a learned man, and was ap- 
pointed sub-librarian at Oxford, where 
he died in 1647. 

VICOSE, Gut de. Baron de la 
Court, a Protestant noble, who sufl?er- 
ed frightful craelties during the drag- 
onnades. He took refuge in London, 
where we find him. a director of the 
Frencli Hospital in 1718, and govern- 
or in 1722. 

VICTORIA, Queen. For notice 
of her Huguenot descent, see p. 313. 

VIGNOLLES, a noble Protestant 
family in Languedoc. Charles de 
Vignolles was a military ofl[icer, who 
fled with his wife into Holland at the 
Revocation.' He afterward accompa- 
nied the Prince of Orange into En- 
gland, fought in the Irish campaigns, 
and settled at Portai-lington. Many 
members of the family have distin- 
guished themselves in the army, the 
Church, and the civil service. Dr. 
Vignolles, Dean of Ossory, and 
Chai-les Vignolles, F.R.S., the emi- 
nent engineer, are among the living 
representatives of two branches of the 
family. 

VILETTES, Sebastian de, a 
country gentleman, lord of Montledier, 
near Castres. Like his ancestors, he 
was a Protestant, and suffered heavy 
persecutions at the Revocation. The 
family fled from France, and took ref- 
uge in foreign lands; some in En- 
gland, and others in Germany. The 
names of the De Vilettes fi-equently 
occur in the hst of dii-ectors of the 
French Hospital. Among others we 
observe those of Lieut. Gen, Henry 
Clinton de Vilettes in 1777, and of 
Major WiUiam de Vilettes in 1779. 

VILLETTE, C. L, de, minister of 
the French chm-ch in Dubhn, and the 
author of numerous reUgious works. 



426 



HUGUENOT REFUGEES. 



VINCENT : numerous refugees of 
this name settled in England, though 
none were men of any particular mai-k. 

"VVITl^ENRONG, Jacob, a Prot- 
estant refugee from Ghent, in Flan- 
ders, who earned his bread in London 
as a notary. His son became a brew- 
er in London, and greatly prospered. 



He was knighted by Charles I. in 
1 640, and created a baronet, of Stan- 
tonbuiy, county Bucks, in 1662. 

YVER, John, a refugee pastor, 
who officiated as minister in several 
of the churches of the refuge in Lon- 
don. He afterward went into Hol- 
land, where he died. 



428 THE HUG UENO TS IN AMERICA. 

ere — a wholesale human butcheiy never to be forgotten in the memory of 
man, nor ever remembered except ^vith horror. This massacre may be pro- 
nounced the most foul and bloody of ancient or modern times, and oui- author 
has graphically described the bloody scenes of that tenific night. Gregory' 
Xm. , then pope, had a medal struck to celebrate the atrocious event. On 
the obverse it has, as usual, a head of the pope. The reverse exhibits a de- 
stroying angel, with a cross in one hand and a sword in the other, pursuing 
and slaying a band of prostrate and flying heretics. Its legend is " Ugono- 
TiTOi Str.\.ges,* 1572." Strange and bloody work for an angel! This rare 
historical medal tells its o^vn terrible tale. 

Then followed the mahgnant, desolating religious wars which raged in 
Prance dming the seventeenth century, and of which history affords no par- 
alleL Wearied with increasing persecutions, the Huguenots began to emi- 
grate, and many left France even before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
The edict was finally revoked, October 18, 1685, at Fontainebleau, without the 
least pretext or necessity. Why the act should be termed the " Revocation," 
we know not, for all its provisions had long been repealed by several ordi- 
nances forbidding the profession of the Reformed faith under severe penalties. 
This celebrated Edict of Nantes, to speak accm-ately, had been a new con- 
firmation of former treaties between the French government and the Protest- 
ants, or Huguenots — in fact, a royal act of indemnification for all past off*enses. 
The verdicts against Protestants were erased from the rolls of the Superior 
Courts in France, and then- unlimited liberty of conscience was recognized. 
This solemn and important edict marked the close of the Middle Ages, and 
the true commencement of modem times. It was sealed with the great seal 
of green wax, to indicate its perpetuity, and in signing this great document 
the illustrious Hemy IV. granted to the Huguenots all then* civil and relig- 
ious rights, wliich had been refused them by their enemies. But a state 
poHcy so novel could not fail to excite the clamors of the more violent fac- 
tions. The sovereign, however, remained firm, declaring to Parliament that 
he had pronounced the edict as king, and as king would be obeyed. "My 
predecessors," he said to the clergy, "have given you good words, but I, with 
my gray jacket, will give you good deeds. I am aU gi-ay on the outside, 
but I'm all gold within." It was due to these nobla royal sentiments that 
peace was for a time maintained in the French realm. 

But the French Protestants did not long enjoy the privileges granted to 
them by the Edict of Nantes, for twelve years after its promulgation Henry 
was assassinated, when religious discord again broke out, and the persecutions 
against the Reformed became so violent, bloody, and intolerable, that flight 
fi:om their native land became inevitable. Many, however, prepared to suffer 
martjnrdom rather than to leave their country and their homes. When the 
full tide of emigration set in fi-om the extended frontier of France, it became 
impossible to prevent the escape of thousands of the fugitives into England, 
Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. Holland ! glorious Protestant Holland ! 
was the favorite ark of the refugees. In this land of our noble Dutch fore- 
fathers they received the most generous private and public hospitahty, with 
the most precious privileges of religious freedom. 

* Massacre of the Huguenots. 



THE HUGUENOTS IN AMEKICA. 

BY THE HON. G. P. DISOSWAY. 



As the author of the "Huguenots, thek Settlement, Churches, and Indus- 
tries in England and Ireland," does not include in his plan any account of 
the emigration of the same persecuted people to America, it seems proper, es- 
pecially for the benefit of the American reader, to append this chapter. The 
history of American Huguenots given in detail would fill a volume. In this 
connection we can only contiibute a mite toward the illustration of this por- 
tion of our national history. 

As eaiiy as the year 1555 the French Huguenots attempted to make a set- 
tlement in America at Brazil, and a few yeai-s aftei-ward in Florida. Both 
attempts, however, failed, on account of the bitter hostility of the Spanish and 
Portuguese. Philip II., a proud and bigoted Komanist, was on the tlu-one 
of Spain, and would not pennit the heresy of Calvinism to be planted in his 
American provinces. Charles IX., too, son of the intriguing and dissolute 
Catharine de Medici, had ascended the French throne. Both this monarch 
and his mother entertained the most bitter enmity toward the Huguenots, or 
French Protestants. The mother, an Italian, not more by her lineage than 
her subtlety, became the actual mistress and ruler of the French empire. 

Among the most devoted friends of Pope Pius Y. were these three royal 
personages. This pope made France the theatre of his most sanguinary per- 
secutions. Excepting Innocent III. , his predecessor, no pontiff, perhaps, ever 
caused the Protestant world so great sori'ow. The bloody Inquisition was 
his nursery and school, and his opposition to Protestant Christianity knew no 
bounds. 

The Huguenots in 1569 lost the hard-fought battle of Jamac, where six or 
seven thousand Protestants contended against a Romish army four times as 
strong. During the fight the Prince of Conde, a brave and distinguished 
leader, of the Reformers, was killed, and his dead body, borne by an ass, be- 
came an object of derision to many who before had trembled at the very men- 
tion of his name. Pius V. greatly exulted over this Huguenot defeat, and he 
left seven letters, written on this sorrowftd occasion, to Catharine, the queen 
mother, which will ever remain as monuments of his unholy zeal and vindic- 
tiveness. He commanded that his enemies should be " massacred' and " to- 
tally exterminated."'^ The holy father went still further, and struck a med- 
al to commemorate the battle, representing himself uncovered and kneeling, 
returning thanks to Heaven for the triumph. 

This pontiff would have extirpated the Protestants from every land ; but, 
happily for the Christian world, he died in 1572. Yet he aroused the dia- 
bolical spirit which, soon after his death, caused the St. Bartholomew massa- 
* Delitia omnibus. 



THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 429 



During the last twenty years of the seventeenth century the French emi- 
gi'ation into that Holland became a marked political event. In the single 
year of the " Revocation" more than two hundred and fifty Huguenot preach- 
ers reached the free soil of the United Provinces. Amsterdam alone obtained 
sixteen. The Protestant Frenchmen greatly advanced all the branches of 
human learning in Holland, for here no fetters embarrassed genius, and there 
was no secret censorship over intellect. The refugees also increasing the 
commerce, manufactures, and agiiculture of the Netherlands, after a while 
rendered Amsterdam one of the most famed cities of the world. Like an- 
cient Tyre, named the ' ' peifection of beauty" by the prophet, her merchant 
princes traded with all islands and nations. 

Until the close of the eighteenth century, the descendants of the Hugue- 
nots in Holland united among themselves by intermarriage and the bonds of 
mutual sympathies. But a fusion with the Dutch in time became inevitable 
in Holland, as was the case,. also, in Germany and England. Many refugees, 
adopting a new nationality, changed their French names into Dutch. The 
Leblancs, for instance, caUed themselves De Witt ; the Deschamps, Van der 
Velde ; the Dubois, Van der Bosch ; the Chevaliers, Euyter ; the Le Grands, 
De Groot, etc. With this change of names. Huguenot churches began to 
disappear in the Netherlands, so that* out of sixty-two which existed in 1688 
among the seven provinces, only eleven now remain. 

This rapid review of the Hollaind Huguenots seems necessary for a better 
understanding of our subject. The Dutch made the earliest settlements in 
New Netherlands, and with them soon came the French Protestants. 

THE WALLOONS. 

Staten Island, that beautiful spot in om- New York Bay, has the honor of 
ha-sing offered the first safe home in America to the Walloons. As early as 
the year 1 622 several Walloon families from the frontier, between Belgium 
and France, tunied their attention to America. They applied to Sir Dudley 
Carleton. for permission to settle in the colony of Virginia, with the privilege 
of erecting a town and governing themselves by magistrates of their own 
election. This application was referred to the Virginia Company,* but its 
conditions were too republican for their taste. Many of these emigi-ants 
looked toward New Netherlands, where some had arrived in 1 624 with Min- 
uit, the early Dutch dii'ector. At first they settled on Staten Island, and 
built a little chxurch near Richmond, as tradition relates, but afterward re- 
moved to Wahle Bocht, Jj.l., or the "Bay of Foreigners," since corrupted 
into WaUabout. This settlement subsequently extended toward "Breuke- 
len," named after an ancient Dutch village on the River Veght, in the prov- 
ince of Utrecht. The name of Walloon itself is said to be derived either 
from Wall (water or sea), or more probably the old German word Wahle, sig- 
nifying a foreigner. 

It must be remembered that this is a page in the earliest chapter of New 

Netherlands, a region which the West India Company now resolved to erect 

into a province. To the Chamber of Amsterdam the superintendence of this 

extensive and newly-discovered country was committed, and that body had 

* London Doc, i., 24. 



430 THE HUGUENOTS IN AMEEICA. 

sent out an expedition, in a vessel called the "New Netherlands, "whereof 
Cornelius Jacobs, of Hoom, was skipper, wth thirty families, mostly Wal- 
loons, to plant a colony in America. They arrived in the beginning of May 
(1623), and the old London docmnent from which we obtain this informa- 
tion adds : 

" God be praised ; it hath so prospered that the honorable Lords Directors 
of the West Lidia Company have, Avith the consent of the noble, high, and 

mighty Lords States-General, undertaken to plant some colonies.* 

The honorable Daniel van Leuckebeeck, for brevity called ' Beeck,' was com- 
missary here, and so did his duty that he was thanked." 

The Walloons had passed through the fires of rehgious persecutions. They 
inhabited the southern Belgic Prcvdnces, and spoke the old French language. 
In the year 1579 the northern provinces of the Netherlands formed their po- 
Htical union at Utrecht ; the southern attached themselves to the Roman 
Church, and decHned joining the confederation. Many, however, professed 
the principles of the Reformation, and against these the Spanish government 
exercised inquisitorial vengeance. Thus mercilessly persecuted, they emi- 
grated by thousands into Holland, where strangers of every race and creed 
obtained a hearty welcome. 

The Hollanders were much indebted to the Walloons for many branches 
of useful manufactm'e, and the fame of the New World reaching the ears of 
these French artisans of Amsterdam, then- attention was dii-ected thither. 
In the year 1625 three ships and a yacht amved at Manhattan with more 
families, fanning implements, and one hundred and three head of cattle. 
Hitherto the government of the Dutch settlement had been quite simple, but 
now a proper director from Holland was appointed — Peter Minuit — and in- 
structed to organize a provincial government. He amved in May, 1626. 
There was no regular clergjnnan as yet in the infant colony, but two "Visit- 
ors of the Sick" were appointed, who also read the Scriptures on Sundays to 
the people. Thus more than two centuries ago was laid the corner-stone 
of the Empire State on the sui'e and firm foundations of justice, morality, 
and reUgion. The Dutch and Huguenot colonists were gi-ave, persevering 
men, who brought with them the simplicity, integrity, and industry of their 
Belgic su-es, and to those eminent virtues were added the Hght of the civil 
law and the purity of the Protestant faith. 

The Rev. Johannes Megapolensis as early as the year 1642 became dom- 
inie of the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany, imder the patronage of "Van 
Rensselaer, the patroon, and five years aftei'ward he took charge of the con- 
gregation at Manhattan. He selected in 1652 for a colleague Samuel Di-is- 
sius, on account of his knowledge of French and EngUsh ; and from his let- 
ters we learn that he went once a month to preach to the French Protestants 
on Staten Island ; these, it is related, were Vaudois or Waldenses^ who had 
found a home in Holland from the severe persecutions of Piedmont, and by 
the liberality of the city of Amsterdam were settled in New Netherlands. 
This ministry continued from 1652 to 1697. and this is all the information 
we have found about this early minister and his little Huguenot flock upon 
Staten Island. The New York Consistory, about the year 1690, invited the 
* Wassemaer^s Ristorie van Europa, Amsterdam, 1G21-3. 



TEE HUG UENOTS IN AMERICA. 431 

Rev. Peter Daille, who had ministered among the Massachusetts Huguenots, 
to preach occasionally on the island. 

Diu'ing the month of August, 1661, a smaE colony of Dutch and French 
emigrants from the Palatinate obtained grants of land on the south side of 
Staten Island, where the site of a village was surveyed. To protect them 
from the Indians, a block-house was erected and garrisoned with three guns 
and ten soldiers. This region became a favorite asylum for the Prench refu- 
gees, where they arrived in considerable immbers about 1675. Their pious 
descendants are among the influential members of the numerous Christian 
churches thei'e, and the Disosways and Guions yet occupy the same fanns 
which their pious Prench ancestors settled a century and a half ago. Here 
the Prench language was formerly spoken, and was as common as the En- 
glish is in our day. 



At an early period in our colonial history the Huguenots made a settle- 
ment in that part of New York now known as Ulster County. Abraham 
Hasbrouck, one of the first patentees, was a native of Calais, Prance, and the 
.first emigrant of the family to America, arriving in 1675 with a party of 
Pi-ench Huguenots. They had resided a while on the banks of the Rhine, itx 
the Palatinate. To commemorate the kindness of the Hollanders when they 
reached our shores, the new settlement was called "i)e Paltz'^ (now ^^New 
Paltz"), as the Palatinate was always styled by the Dutch. The beautiful 
stream also flowing through this region was known as the "TFa^7a7/," after 
the River Wael, a branch of the Rhine nmning into Holland. The first 
twelve patentees, or the ^^Duzine," as long as they lived managed the affairs 
of the infant settlement, and after their death for a long period all the impor- 
tant papers and land-titles were kept in one chest. To the pastor, or oldest 
man, was intrusted its key, and reference was made to this depository for the 
settlement of all difficulties about boundaries. We ciah trace to this simple 
and judicious plan the well-known hai'mony among the, descendants of £he 
early settlers in this region, the fideUty of then-: landmarks, and the absence 
.of litigation about property. Prom their earliest settlement there has been 
a constant intermarriage among the Pi-ench and Dutch and their descend- 
ants, many of whom continue to reside upon the venerable homesteads of 
their pious forefathers. 

Devoted as the Huguenots ever had been to the worship of God, it is not 
strange that one of their fii'st enterprises at New Paltz was the erection of a 
church. It was built of logs, and aftei-ward gave place to a substantial one 
constructed of brick brought from Holland, the place answering the double 
purpose of a house of worship and of a fort. Their third tabernacle was an 
excellent stone bmlding, in which they worshiped for eighty years, when it 
was demohshed in the year 1839 ; the present splendid edifice was erected 
on its venerable site. 

Por some time after their emigration to Ulster the Prenchmen used their 
own tongue, but afterward they adopted not only the language, but also the 
customs and habits of the Dutch. Some of their descendants in New Paltz 
still write their names in the style of their old Prench ancestors two centu- 



432 THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 



ries ago. Bevier, Dubois, Deyeau, Hasbroque, Le Een*e, are -well-known in- 
stances. After the destruction of the Protestant churches at Rochelle in 
1685, the colonists from that brave city came to the settlements of the New- 
York colony, and it became necessaiy sometimes to print the pubhc docu- 
ments not only in Dutch and English, but also in French. 

-WESTCHESTEB. 

. Westchester. County, New York', was settled by emigrants seeking safety 
from religious persecution in New England and France. As eai-ly as the 
year 1642 John Throckmorton, with thirty-five associates, ha-\dng been driven 
from New England by the -violent Hugh Peters, commenced the first settle- 
ment in this region with the approbation of the Dutch authorities. They 
called the place Vredeland, or Land of Peace, a beautiful name for the home 
of those seeking rest from the violence of persecutors. Twelve years after- 
wai'd this little Pmitan colony was increased by the arrival of more emigrants 
from Connecticut. 

New Rochelle is situated near the shore of Long Island Sound, and in Sep- 
tember, 1689, a body of exUed Huguenots here purchased six thousand a,cres 
of land ; the pm'chasers, their heirs, and assigns, as an acknowledgment, were 
to pay " one /at calf on every four-and-twentieth day of June, yearly, and ev- 
ery year forever, if demanded.'' It is a well-kno-wn fact, that every Hugue- 
not on the festival of St. John the Baptist, as long as the claim endm-ed, paid 
his proportion of the fat calf. During the year 1690 Governor Leisler re- 
leased to these banished French Protestants the lands thus purchased for 
them. They named their settlement New Rochelle, and were themselves a 
portion of the 50,000 who found safety in that old noble Protestant land 
fom* years before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. According to tra- 
dition, they landed from a royal vessel on the present Davenport's Neck, then 
called Bonnefoy's Point. 

Simultaneously with the foundation of their village, they organized a 
chm-ch, " according to the usage of the Reformed Church in France." Their 
house of worship was built of wood, about 3 692-93, and was destroyed soon 
after the Revolutionary War. David Bonrepos, D.D., who accompanied the 
earliest Huguenots in their flight to this land, was the first pastor, 1695. He 
also preached to the French refugees on Staten Island. The Rev. Daniel 
Bondet, A.M., who arrived at Boston in 1688, was the next minister at New 
Rochelle. At first he used the French prayers, but subsequently, every third 
Sunday, the litm-gy of the English Church. Folio-wing the example of then- 
Reformed French brethren in England, this congregation conformed in 1709 
to the English Church, as then established by law, in the New York colony. 

This organization increasing, a new sacred stone edifice was completed in 
1710. After nearly twenty-seven years of faithful labor, Mr. Bondet died in 
1722, greatly lamented, and was buried beneath the chancel of his chm-ch. 
Here are also entombed the ashes of his successor, the Rev. Pierre Stouppe, 
A.M., who departed 1760, and of the Rev. Michael Houdin, A.M., who suc- 
ceeded Stanhope, and died 1766. Smce the removal of the old edifice, the 
ashes of these very early Protestant missionaries sleep beneath the conmaon 
highway to Boston, and not a stone tells where they lie. 



THE HUGUENOTS IN AMEBICA. 433 

Among the emigrants to New Rochelle -were the ancestors of John Jay 
and Bishop De Lancey. Mr. Jay's family originally came from La Guienne. 

NEW TOEK CITY. 

Such was the increase of the Trench refugees into the colony of New York, 
that the French church of our city for some time hecame the metropolis of 
Calvinism in the New World. During the year 1685 there was a large ad- 
dition of French Protestants to the population. Many of these, having so- 
journed in the islands of St. Christopher and Mai-tinique, made a final settle- 
ment among our tolerant citizens, bringing with them wealth, industry, and 
the useful arts. By the year 1695 their families had reached nearly two 
hundred in number, and were among the most influential of the city. At 
first they worshiped in a small building on Marketfield Street ; then a more 
commodious chapel was built upon Pine — '■''EEglise du Saint Esprit,'^ the 
Church of the Holy Spuit. It was built of stone, was seventy by fifty feet 
in size, and there was attached to it a bmying-ground. At the conclusion 
of the pubKc services the minister always said ^^Souvenez vous les pauvres,'''' 
"Remember ye the poor," when old and young di-opped their benefections 
into the "poor-box" behind the church doors. The next morning, at 9 
o'clock regularly, the beneficiaries came to receive this pious gift. The Hu- 
guenots always remembered and aided their poor brethren. Here for one 
hundred and thii-ty years the French Protestants worshiped God after "Cal- 
vin's way," as did the Reformed churches of France and Geneva. They 
thus used the religious foims of their fathers imtil the year 1 804, when the 
old congregation conformed to the Protestant Episcopal Chm-ch, except in 
language, to this day retaining the French. " L'Eglise," on Pine, was sold, 
and the elegant white marble sacred edifice erected at the comer of Franklin 
and Chm'ch Streets, where the congi-egation maintained their religious seiw- 
iccs for some years, but has recently erected a beautiful edifice in the upper 
pai*t of the city. Since the establishment of the original church, fourteen 
ministers have been its pastors. James de Lancey was its most generous 
benefactor. In 1729 he was a member of the Colonial Council, and subse- 
quently justice of the Supreme Court, and lieutenant governor of the state. 

Bancroft, writing of early New York (1656), says, "Its settlers were relics 
of the first-fruits of the Reformation, chosen from the Belgic provinces and 
England, fi'om France and Bohemia, from Germany and Switzerland, from 
Piedmont and the Italian Alps. " .... "When the Protestant churches in 
Rochelle were razed, the colonists of that city were gladly admitted, and the 
French Protestants came in such numbers that the public documents were 
sometimes issued in French as well as in English." 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

As early as the year 1662, John Teuton, a doctor of Rochelle, applied to 
the Court of Massachusetts, asking that he and other French Protestants 
who had been expelled from their homes on account of their faith might 
come to New England, and that American colony generously received them. 
They became useful and honorable citizens of the state. Faneuil Hall, Bos- 
ton, where so early was heard the plea for national independence, was the 

Ee 



434 THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 

generous gift of a Huguenot's son, and the time-honored edifice still retains 
his name, and its venerable walls are adorned with his fall-length portrait. 

The General Comt of Massachusetts granted a tract of land eight miles 
square, some 12,000 acres, to the French refugees for then- village of Oxford 
in 1686. The region was then a howling wildeniess, but is now the busy- 
town of Worcester. One of the first acts of these settlers was the settle- 
ment of a minister at £40 a year. Surrounded by savages, the new settlers 
erected a fort, traces of which are still to be seen in our day, though the site 
is overgrown with currant-bushes, roses, and other shrubbery. Mrs. Sigora- 
ney, during a visit to this venerable spot, wrote these beautiful lines : 
" Green vine 1 that mantlest in thy fresh embrace 

Yon old gray rock, I hear that thou, with them, 

Didst brave the ocean surge. 

Say, drank thy germ 

The dews of Languedoc? .... 

At fair Kochelle ! 

Hast thou no tale for me ?" etc. 

This fortification not making their forest home safe from the murderous sav- 
ages, the colonists in 1696 repaired to Boston, where vestiges of their indus- 
try and agricultural taste long remained. This region has been celebrated 
for its delicious pears, many of which retain their Pi-ench names to this day. 
A refugee minister of France, Daille, and a Mr. Lawrie, are named as early 
pastors to this little flock. 

PENNSYLVANIA, MARYLAND, AND VIEGINLA.. 

Pennsylvania furnished an asylum for many hundreds of the Fi'ench Prot- 
estants who had -first established themselves in England, but who, when the 
ascent of James 11. to the throne threatened their liberties, emigrated to 
America. 

In 1690 Maryland also received quite a large number of Huguenots, and 
during the same year King William m. sent to the Virginia colony a body 
of these refugees who had followed him from HoUand hito England, and 
doubtless had also taken part in the Irish war. Lands were assigned to 
them twenty miles above Richmond, upon the southern bank of James River, 
near an old Indian place, "Mannikin," after wliich they named their settle- 
ment, afterward known as the ' ' Parish of King William. " About three hund- 
red families in 1699, just escaped from France, greatly strengthened this infant 
colony, and was increased still more the next year by two hundred, and joon 
afterward by one hundred other French families. Claude Plulippe de Riche- 
bourg, their pastor, had been driven from France by the Revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, and for a long time was the faithful guide and spiritual coun- 
selor of these expatriated Christians. 

Our author, Mr. Smiles, refers to the romantic and noble life of James Fon- 
taiae, who was a striking example of a true Huguenot. About the year 
1716 three of his sons, emigrating to the colony of Virginia, became eloquent 
and useful ministers in the EstabUshed Church. A grandson also, the Rev. 
James Maury, settled in St. Margaret's Parish, King William County, and 
from him descended Matthew Fontaine Maury, LL.D., late of the National 
Observatory, Washington, and author of " The Physical Geography of the 



THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 435 

Sea." From tMs Fontaine stock alone have descended hundreds of the best 
citizens in Virginia, and the late Dr. Hawks estimated their relations in the 
United States at not less than 2000. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

South Carolina was styled "the Home of the Huguenots," and became 
their principal retreat in the New World. Eichebourg conducted thither 
part of his flock from Virginia. Nearly a thousand fugitives successively em- 
barked for Carolina in the ports of Holland alone. One historian in 1686 
states that "more than a hundred persons are buying a frigate, half resolved 
on going to Carolina. .... There will be about four hundred persons, re- 
solved to fight weU in case of attack, and set fire to the vessel should they 

be reduced to extremity These gentlemen can not accommodate 

themselves with a vessel in this country. There is one carrying fifty can- 
non which has been chartered for them in England," and fifty guns, fifty 
musquetoons, and thirty pairs of pistols were purchased at Utrecht for 
this vessel. The same writer continues: "Our Carolinians of Amsterdam 
are about to join themselves to those of Rotterdam, in which they are go- 
ing to England. At London they have many associates, who will go 
with them. .... The two barks which belong to them, and in which 
they will make theii* voyage to England, will serve them also for going to 
Carolina. They will load them with Malmsey wine, and other merchan- 
dise, in the island of Madeira. The two barks, and their ship of from forty- 
five to fifty guns, which they have chartered in England, will be manned by 
four hundred well-armed persons. " In their flight, doubtless, if an attempt 
had been made to arrest them, these well-armed emigrants would have dear- 
ly sold then- lives. 

Isaac Mazicq, one of the French refugees, a merchant from the island of 
Rhe', opposite La Rochelle, reached Charleston in the year 1686, accompa- 
nied by many other Huguenots, and became the progenitor of one of the most 
respectable families in South Carolina. He established a commercial house 
in the capital of that province, laying the foimdation of an immense fortune, 
which he most generously devoted to his new and adopted country. 

A number of Englishmen, during the reign of James 11., fearing the res- 
toration of the Roman Catholic religion, emigrated to Carolina, accompanied 
by many Huguenots, refugees in England, apprehensive as to the protection 
of a prince who openly attached himself to the Romanist faith. AH here 
found a home where, although the English fonn of worship was dominant, 
still the kind tolerance of Shaftesbury had opened a religious asylum to Chris- 
tians of all denominations. The most considerable emigration took place in 
1687, when, through the royal bounty, six hundred French Protestants were 
sent to America, most of them locating in Carolina. These were generally 
mechanics and laborers, to whom also had been given the necessary tools for 
their trades and pursuits. 

The refugees established three colonies in South Carolina — Orange Quar- 
ter, on the Cooper River, Santee, and that at Charleston. Amid these prim- 
itive forests the exiles worshiped God without fear of man or of royal edicts, 
and thdr psalms mingled with the free winds of heaven. From Orange 



436 THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 

Quarter the colonists repaired on Sundays in their light canoes to their church 
at Charleston. Ten families from the Orange Quarter made a settlement 
upon the site of the modern toA^Ti of Strawberry Feriy , and buUt a chm-ch, of 
which Florent Philippe Trouillart became the first pastor. 

In this until then uninhabited country another settlement at Jamestown 
was commenced in 1705, and contained one hundred French famihes. Their 
earliest pastor is said to have been Pierre Robert, a Swiss, who doubtless ac- 
companied a party of the fugitives in their escape from France. Next to the 
colony at the capital, this became the most flom-ishing. The richest and 
most populous Huguenot settlement in South Carohna was that of Charles- 
ton, where entire streets were built by them. One still bears the name of its 
founder, Gabriel Gnignard. Here Elias Prioleau became the first pastor, a 
descendant of Antoine Prioli, the Doge of Venice in 1618. 

The adventm-es, ti-ials, and misfortunes of some of these pious emigrants 
in leaving their native land for a safe home in this province are full of ro- 
mance, and can not be read except with painful interest. Judith Manigault, 
a young married woman, at once a Christian and a ti'ue heroine, has left this 
record of the flight of her family from France : ^ 

" We quitted our home in the night, leaving the soldiers in their beds, and 
abandoning to them our house and all that it contained. Well knowing that 
we should be sought for in every direction, we remained ten days concealed 
at Romans, in Dauphiny, at the house of a good woman who had no thought 
of betraying us." Making a long chcuit through Holland and German}'-, and 
after suffering many misfortunes, the family embarked for America at Lon- 
don. Then she continues : " The red fever broke out on board the ship ; 
many of us died of it, and among them our aged mother. We touched at 
the island of Bennuda, where the vessel which carried us was seized. We 
spent all our money there, and it was with great difficulty that we procm'ed a 
passage on board of another ship. New misfortunes awaited, us in Carolina. 
At the end of eighteen months we lost our eldest brother, who succumbed to 
such unusual fatigues ; so that after our departure from France we endured 
iill that it was possible to suffer. I was six months without tasting bread, 
working besides like a slave ; and duiing three or four years I never had the 
wherewithal completely to satisfy the hunger which devoured me." " Yet," 
adds this admirable woman, with most Christian resignation, " God accom- 
plished great things in our favor by giving us the strength necessary to sup- 
port these trials." From this fragment of history we can well imagine the 
untold sufferings which thousands of other refugee emigrants endured in 
their flight from their own to other and more tolerant lands. 

In 1764 two hundred and twelve exiles from France added new sti-ength 
to the refugee settlements in Carolina. Their pastor, named Gilbert, accom- 
panied them, the EngUsh government furnishing then- passage. Vacant 
lands were distributed among them, and soon a town raised itself, to which 
its founders gave the name of New Bordeaux, in honor of the capital of Gui- 
enne, where most of them were bom. The foreign Protestants who had set- 
tled in Carolina up to the year 1782 had increased to no less than sixteen 
thousand, of whom a good portion were French. In the two Carolinas the 
Lords Proprietors not only granted lands to the Fi-er.ch Protestants upon tlie 



THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 437 

condition of a penny an acre yearly payment, but they like^vise conferred 
upon them all the civil and military offices in their power to bestow. They 
also gave them the most milimited religious freedom. They became natural- 
ized in 1697, and were legally admitted into the great body of the American 
people. Fi'om the French colonists in Carolina we find the descendants 
of many honorable families — the Eavenels, Trevezants, Peronneaus, Neu- 
villes, Manigaults, Marions, Lam'enses, Legares, Hugers, Gaillards, Duboises, 
Dupres, Chevaliers, Bacots, Benoits, Bayai'ds, etc. 

That never-dying sentiment, attaching man to his native land, notwith- 
standing the advantages of then- home in America, inspired some of the emi- 
grants \vith a new and strange project, which, if the royal monarch had any 
of the nobler feelings of human nature, must have touched the heart of Louis 
Xn. Not at all disposed, like their expatriated brethren in Em-ope, to return 
to France, they yet indulged the hope of settling on the French lands of 
America. They requested Bienville, the Governor of Louisiana, to send their 
petition to the court at Versailles. This was signed by 400 families, who 
had taken refuge, after the " Revocation," in Cai'olina, and who only solicited 
permission to settle in Louisiana on the simple condition that they should 
enjoy liberty of conscience. With Romanism this is entirely out of the ques- 
tion, and the Count de Pontchai-train infoimed the petitioners that his royal 
master the king had not driven them from his kingdom to form a Protestant 
republic in his American possessions. Wliile entire Kberty of conscience 
prevailed in the American colonies and chm*ches, Louisiana alone was found- 
ed under the dai-k and malign shadow of intolerant despotism. That beau- 
tiful region languished dming one hundi-ed years in a sad and feeble infancy. 
Nor did she awaken from this stupor rmtil after her entrance into the Prot- 
estant American family. Then the State of Louisiana rapidly doubled her 
population, and free from obstacles, developed the immense riches she carried 
in her bosom. This refusal of Louis XIV. destroyed every hope of the ref- 
ugees remaining Frenchmen, and they became more than ever attached to 
their newly-adopted homes and country. 

In conclusion, let us briefly refer to the effects of the Huguenot migration 
upon American history. 

The American colonies were lai'gely remunerated for the generous hospi- 
talities they extended to the French Protestants. In Massachusetts the lat- 
ter cleared the forests then surrounding the Boston and Oxford settlemeiits, 
and introduced the cultm-e of the pear, quince, and grape. The founders of 
New Rochelle reclaimed smiling fields and fruitful gardens from a savage 
wilderness ; and thus, too, were the uncultivated lands of the James River 
transfoi-med into fruitful farms and rich harvests. Along the banks of the 
Cooper, in South Carolina, they planted the ohve, the vine, and the mulber- 
ry, with most other productions of Southern France. When Charles IE., in 
1680, sent the first band of French Protestants to Carolina, his principal ob- 
ject was to introduce into that colony the eixcellent modes of cultivation 
which they had followed in their own country. Their lands, an early travel- 
er (Lawson) states, presented the aspect of the most cultivated portions of 
France and England ; and he adds, " They live like a tribe, like one family, 
and each one rejoices at the prosperity and elevation of his brethren." 



438 THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 

The mechanics and merchants chose Charleston for their residence, and 
they became a valuable addition to the then newly-founded American colony. 
They established silk and woolen manufactories, and made the cotton Ro- 
vialls^ so much demanded in America, and similar to our universally-used 
bleached muslins. Thus the refugees added greatly to the national prosper- 
ity and wealth of the United States. 

Nor were their political influences and services less numerous and impor- 
tant to the American colonies. They often fought in the ranks of the Amer- 
ican militia dming the fii-st half of the eighteenth century. Natm-ally ene- 
mies to political despotism and religious intolerance, in the Revolutionary con- 
test the French Protestants ran to arms, and displayed the energy and brav- 
ery which they had inherited from their noble ancestors. As before remark- 
ed, Faneuil Hall, the " Cradle of Liberty," was offered by the son of a Hu- 
guenot to the orators of New England for their patriotic deliberations. 

Many scions of the Huguenot families on the field of battle led the Amer- 
icans to victoiy, or distinguished themselves in the councils of the infant re- 
public. Amid the more radiant glory of Washington, Eranklin, Hamilton, 
Lafayette, and Rochambeau, the names of John Bayard, Francis Marion, 
Hemy and John Laurens, John Jay, Elias Boudinot, and the two Mani- 
gaults, should ever be gi-atefuUy remembered for their eminent and patriotic 
services to om* common country. Henry Lam*ens, John Jay, and EUas 
Boudinot, of the seven presidents who directed the deliberations of our earli- 
est Congress dming the War of Independence, descended from French an- 
cestors. 

The services of Henry Lam-ens to his countiy were truly brilliant. A na- 
tive of Charleston, bom in 1724, when solicited not to take part in the com- 
ing American contest, he rephed, " I am determined to stand or fall with my 
coimtry;" and by accepting thepresidency of the Committee of Safety in 1775, 
he risked his fortune and life in the common cause. A member of the first 
national Congress in 1776, as we have remai'ked, he was elected its presiding 
officer, manifesting rare ability, with nobihty and dignity of thought and lan- 
guage. In the archives of Congress his official letters have been preserved, 
and are doubly mai'ked with the stamp of a statesman and patriot, bearing 
the impress of manly energy and elevated sentiment. In 1778, voluntarily 
resigning his high office. Congress presented him a vote of public thanks, Avith 
their declaration that he deserved well of the countiy. The next year, ap- 
pointed minister from the United States to Holland, on his voyage to that 
land he was captui-ed by a British ship, and imprisoned in the Tower of Lon- 
don. At the age of fifty-six years, and infirm, he was confined to a cell, and 
no one was pei-mitted to visit him. After a month's confinement he was in- 
formed that if he would serve the interests of England in her conflict with 
the colonies he should be set at hberty, but he rejected the proposition with 
the most lively indignation. " I will never," he replied, " subscribe my name 
to' my own infamy and to the.dishonor of my family." His fiimness did not 
forsake him for an instant. "Nothing," he added, "can move me." Here 
was the noble old Huguenot spirit of his forefathers. In the year 1781 he 
was brought before the Court of the King's Bench, and the judge addi-essing 
him in the usual form, "The king, your sovereign master," etc., Laiu-ens 



THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 439 

interrupted him and cried, " He is not my sovereign." After a rigorous im- 
prisonment of more than fourteen months, he was set at liberty with impaired 
health. Nevertheless, he again, and for the last time, served his now inde- 
pendent country. With Franklin, Adams, and Jay, Mr. Lam-ens, in 1782, re- 
paired to Paris and signed the memorable treaty which secured independence 
to the thirteen American provinces, and placed them among the nations of the 
world. 

John Laurens, his son, was bom at Charleston in 1775, was educated a 
lawyer, and when the War of Independence broke out, became an aid-de- 
camp to Greneral Washington. He was wounded at the battle of German- 
town, and took a glorious part at Monmouth in June, 1778. When Charles- 
ton capitulated to the British he became a prisoner of war, but, being ex- 
changed for an English officer. Congress sent him to France as embassador 
extraordinary to Louis XVT. He was charged to represent the critical con- 
dition of the coimtry, solicit a loan and the assistance of the king's fleet. 
Succeeding in this important mission, he returned home in six months, hav- 
ing obtained every thing he requested — a subsidy of six millions, the French 
king's secm-ity for ten millions boiTOwed fi-om Holland, and a strong re-en- 
forcement to the American naval and land forces- Thus the son of a Hugue- 
not refugee obtained important aid for his native land from the country of his 
ancestors, and, having accomplished this, he hastened to resume his place 
again among General Washington's aids-de-camp. Afterward elevated to 
the rank of colonel, he confirmed the confidence of his superiors by one of the 
most brilliant acts of the campaign. At the siege of Yorktovni two formi- 
dable redoubts had to be taken at all hazards, and within 300 paces of the 
British intrenchments. The French were ordered to storm one and the 
Americans the other. Young Lam-ens commanded the latter, and his sol- 
diers marched to the assault with unloaded muskets, and, scaling the palisades, 
in a few minutes earned the redoubt. The French took the other redoubt, 
and ComwaUis, vainly defending foot by foot the approaches to his camp, was 
compelled to surrender with 8000 men. Washington designated John Lau- 
rens to draw up the articles of capitulation, and, sti-ange to add, while arrang- 
ing the conditions which made a British army prisoners of war, at that very 
moment his father was a close prisoner in the Tower of London. 

But mihtary operations were not yet entii-ely suspended ; for, although the 
Enghsh had met with this great reverse, they still held Charleston, and Col- 
onel Laurens, with General Green's army, determined to shai-e the last dan- 
gers yet to be encountered for the independence of then- country. At the noise 
of the firing made by a sally of the enemy from pharleston. Colonel Laurens 
left his sick-chamber and followed Genei-al Gist, with 300 men, to repel the 
advance of a strong detachment. Engaging a very superior force, and in the 
expectation of speedy relief, after great valor he received a mortal wound, 
and died gloriously on the field of battle, August 27th, 1782, scarcely twenty- 
seven years of age. Thus was this brave and noble young man struck down 
in the moment of triumph. At the time he was the idol of his country, the 
glory of the American army, an ornament to human natm-e, his talents shin- 
ing with no less brilliancy in the legislative halls than upon the battle-field. 

Although less illustrious than the two Laurenses, the two Manigaults should 



UO THE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA . 

be recorded among the Americans of Frencli Protestant origin who aided in 
the triumph of the Revolution, thus in a measure paying the debt of hospital- 
ity incurred b}"- their ancestors. Gabriel Manigault, born in Charleston, 1704, 
of a family formerly living at La Rochelle, became one of the most wealthy 
merchants in America, and most loyal to the cause of American liberty. Too 
old to take up arms, with his fortune he assisted the cause by loaning 
$220,000 to the State of South Carolina ; and when General Prevost thi-eat- 
ened Charleston, the brave old man took his grandson, a child of only fifteen 
years, by the hand, and fell into the volunteer ranks to fight theu* countiy's 
battle. Two years after he died, leaving a fortune of $500,000 honorably 
acquired, and an unstained record. 

The history of this patriotic family does not end here ; his son, Gabriel 
Manigault, was bom in Charleston, 1731.. He was appointed a judge, and 
was elected a delegate to the Provincial Congi-ess. In 1766 he was president 
of the Cai-olina Assembly, which prepared the way for Revolutionary move- 
ments. He was able and eloquent, and, in the midst of a useful and brilliant 
career, died at the early age of forty-two years, at the moment when the "Lib- 
erty Boys" of Boston were thi'owiug the British cai'go of tea into their hai- 
bor. 

John Jay, the descendant of an original Huguenot family, and of illustrious 
memor}'-, was born in New York. In 1774 he signed the act of association 
between the tliirteen colonies to suspend the importation of British merchan- 
dise, and during 1774 was chosen president of Congi-ess. He drew up an elo- 
quent circular for that body, when the temporary success of the British arms 
at the South had occasioned great despondency, and caused the depreciation 
of the Continental paper money. He ably proved that the United States, 
from then- resources and natural riches, would be able to meet then- engage- 
ments, and implored his fellow-citizens to resume their confidence in them- 
selves and their infant government. Like Laurens, Mr. Jay represented his 
country at the com-t of Louis XVI., and, on November 30, 1782, was one of 
the commissioners to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which secured American 
independence. 

PaithM to the traditions of the Prench Protestants, he was always a great 
lover and student of the Bible, and in advanced fife was chosen president of 
the American Bible Society. Every morning his whole family was regularly 
summoned to religious worship, and precisely at nine in the evening he read to 
them a chapter of God's Word, and concluded the day with prayer. Nothing 
ever interfered with these holy services. At an early period of our national his- 
tory was published by Mr. j^adison and Colonel Alexander Hamilton the 
well-known Federalist. Mr. Jay had contributed the second, third, fourth, 
and fifth numbers, when he was obHged to discontinue writing from a dan- 
gerous wound inflicted on his forehead while endeavoiing to preserve the pub- 
lic peace at an alarming riot in New York dm-ing the year 1787. Aftei-^vard, 
however, he added the sixty-fourth number, upon the then important treaty- 
making powers, a most appropriate subject for his consideration, who was 
perhaps the most competent man in the country to discuss it. He died on 
the 14th of May, 1829, in his eighty-fourth year, and the public jounials, the 
comts, and all parties united in proper tributes to his exalted virtues. Con- 



THE EUG UENOTS IN AMERICA. 441 

gi-ess ordered his bust, as the first chief justice of the United States, to be 
placed in the Supreme Court room. The whole life of this Huguenot de- 
scendant exhibited the rare and sublime picture of the patriot, statesman, and 
Christian united, and justified the universal respect and honor ever bestowed 
upon him. - 

Ehas Boudinot, another eminent Huguenot by descent, preceded John Jay 
in the presidency of the American Bible Society. He was bom in Philadel- 
phia, March 2d, 1740, of a French Protestant family which had emigrated 
after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was considered one of the 
most eminent lawyers in Pennsylvania. He filled the office of chief justice 
of New Jersey when the Wai- of Independence broke out, and, following the 
example of nearly all the descendants of the Prench refugees, he embraced 
the cause of the American patriots. Congress appointed him to the impor- 
tant trust of commissary general of prisoners, the duties of which office he 
discharged with great prudence and humanity. In the year 1777 his fellow- 
citizens elected him a member of Congress, and in 1782 he was chosen its 
president, and had the honor of signing the treaty of peace which secured the 
national independence. Upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 
1789, Mr. Boudinot was honored with a seat in the House of Eepresenta- 
tives, and occupied the important trust for six successive years. General 
Washington appointed him director of the Mint in 1796, and he continued to 
discharge the duties of this office xmtil 1805, when he retired from public Ufe, 
settling at Burlington, N. J. Dming his last years, Mr. Boudinot devoted 
his leisure to the study of Biblical literature, and the exercise of a public and 
private charity. Wliile in its infancy, the American Bible Society was by 
his large donations placed upon a firm foundation. A trustee of Princeton 
College, he founded its cabinet of Natural History at a cost of $3000. Mr. 
Boudinot early married a daughter of Eichard Stockton. He left an only 
daughter, and after suitably pro\'iding for her, bequeathed the most of his 
large estate to those excellent objects which through life had been dearest to 
his heart. 

Mr. Boudinot wrote several works, and among them an able reply (" The 
Age of Revelation") to Tom Paine's *' Age of Reason." His principal pub- 
lication was the "Star of the West," or an attempt to discover the long-lost 
tribes of Israel, which at the time was read with much interest. He reached 
the advanced age of eighty-one, and died in the city of Burlington, N. J., 
Oct. 24, 1821. On his tomb-stone is inscribed this sentence : 

" Mark the perfect man and beheld the upright, for the end of that man 
is peace!" 

Although the literary influence of the French Protestants in America was 
less than that which they exercised in political affairs, nevertheless it sho;ild 
not be passed over in entire silence. They have often appeared with distinc- 
tion upon the seats of our tribunals, as weU as in the sacred desk. Elias 
Prioleau, the first pastor of the Huguenot church at Charleston, was both an 
eloquent preacher and a writer of merit. His manuscript works are said to 
possess great purity of doctrine, elegance of style, and vigorous thought. 
Bancroft says, referring to Bowdoin, "The name of the oldest college recalls 
to mind the wise liberality of a descendant of a Huguenot." The same his- 



442 TEE HUGUENOTS IN AMERICA. 

torian also recognizes in the French Protestants that moral elevation of 
which they gave so many proofs in every country where they were dispersed, 
and he adds, " The childi-en of the French colonists have certainly good rea- 
son to hold the memoiy of then- fathers in great honor."* 

To the earliest settlements in the colony of New York can be traced the 
Huguenot element minghng with the excellent Dutch population. It is a re- 
markable fact that the first white child born in the New Netherlands, June 
9, 1625, was Sarah, daughter of George Jansen de Eapelje, an expatriated 
Huguenot after the St. Bai-tholomew's, who emigi-ated first to Holland, and 
then to New Netherlands. The Indians, it is stated, commemorated her 
bii-th by presenting to the father and his fellow-countrymen a liberal grant 
of lands around Wallabout, Long Island. 

Johannes Delamontagnie, a Huguenot refugee, came to New Amsterdam 
in 1637, and was honored by Governor Kieft as a member of the council, at that 
period the second in the colonial government. He purchased a farm of 200 
acres at Harlem for $720, naming it " Vredendal," or Valley of Peace. Nu- 
merous and respectable descendants are still to be found fi'om this early Prot- 
estant settler. The original French families have long since disappeared 
from Flushing, Long Island, but the fi-uit-trees they introduced stiU remain, 
especially the apple and the pear, so famous in that highly-cultivated region. 

At the present time, descendants of the Huguenots maybe found in aU the 
United States, particularly in New York, Maryland, Virginia, and the Caro- 
linas. It is not so easy to recognize their names, altered as they have been 
by a bad pronunciation, or translated into English. The sons and grandsons 
of the French refugees, Httle by little, have become mingled with the society 
which gave a home to then- fathers in the same way as in England, HoUand, 
and Gennany. As their Church disappeared in America, the members be- 
came attached to other evangelical denominations, especially the Episcopal, 
Reformed Dutch, Methodist, and Presbyterian. The French language, too, 
has long since disappeared with their Chm-ch services, which used to call to 
mind the country of then- ancestors. Fi*ench was preached in Boston until 
the close of the last centuiy, and at New York the Huguenot services were 
celebrated both in French and English as late as 1772. Here, at the French 
Protestant church, which succeeded the Huguenot years since, the Gospel is 
preached in the same language in which the prince of French pulpit orators, 
Saurin, used to declare divine truth two centuries ago. The Huguenot chm-ch 
at Charleston, South Carolina, alone has retained in its primitive purity, in 
theii' public worship, the old Calvinistic litm-gy of its forefathers. 

The greater part of the exiled French families have long since disappear- 
ed, and their scattered communities have been dissolved by amalgamation 
with the other races around them. These pious fugitives have become pub- 
lic blessings throughout the world, and have increased in Prussia, Gei-many, 
Holland, and England the elements of power, prosperity, and Christian de- 
velopment. In our. land, too, they helped to lay the firm corner-stones of the 
great repubUc, whose glory they most justly share. 

The Clove, S. L, Oct., 1867. 

* Bancroft, vol. ii., p. 1S3. 



INDEX. 



Abbadie, Huguenot pastoi', dean of KDlaloe, 
240. 

Allis, Huguenot pastor, 242. 

Alva, Duke of, interview witli Catharine de 
Medicis,59; persecutions in Flanders con 
ductfed by, 62 : plots against Queen Eliza- 
beth, 74 

America, flight of refugees to, 111, 176. 

Antwerp, printing of Bibles at, 23 ; prosperi- 
ty of, 61 ; sack of, SI. 

Armada, Sacred, 81, 1 IS, 380. 

Artisans, refugee, in England— Flemish, 63, 
86-109, 353-68 ; French, 250-69. 

Assassination of William of Orange, 75 (note); 
plots to assassinate Elizabeth, 72, 75-80. 

Austin Friars, Dutch church in, 113 (note)^ 
114 and note. 

B. 

Barnstaple, French refugees at, 293. 

Bai-onets, English, of Huguenot descent, 317. 

Barre, family of, 167 (note), 319. 

Bartholomew, massacre of Saint, 65. 

Bearhaven, Ireland, James Fontaine's en- 
deavors to establish a fishing-station at, 
295. 

Beam, massacre of Protestants in, 128 ; di-ag- 
onnadea in, 148. 

Benefit societies established by French refu- 
gees, 254. 

Bermondsey, Flemings in, 94, 95. 

Bethnal Green, descendants of refugees in, 
334 (note). 

Baza, Theodore de, 53, 55. 

Bible, dearness of MS., 13 ; first printed, 15; 
early editions, IS ; prohibited, 18 ; value of, 
20 ; influence on literature, 21 (note) ; Lu- 
ther's translation of, 22 ; Tyndale's trans- 
lation, 23 : effects of its circulation, 24 ; 
bummg of, 30, 146, 342. 

Bidassoa, intei-view at, 59. 

Blanket, the brothers, their manufacture, 
357-8. 

Bodt, John de, engineer, 228. 

Boileau, family of, 317. 

Bonrepos, Eiquet de, 135. 

Books, burning of, 29, 146, 342. 

Bossuet, his praise of Louis XIV. for revoking 
the Edict of Nantes, 152. 

Bostaquet, Dumont de— family of, 192; es- 
cape from France, 196 ; flight into Hol- 
land, 202; expedition to England, 205; 
campaign in Ireland, 211. 

Bordeaux, Huguenots at, 146. 

Bourdieu, John du. (See Dubourdieu.) 

Bonrdillon, French pastor, on decay of the 
churches, 278. 



Bouveries, fanaily of, 309. 

Bow, Flemings at, 90. 

Boyne, battle of the, 214. 

Brandenburg, French refugees in, 175. 

BriQonnet, bishop of Meaux, 26. 

Briot, introduces the coining press, 96 (note). 

Bristol, French church^at, 276, 391. 

Burleigh, Cecil Lord, conspiracy against, 78 ; 

mayor of Eye's letters to, 78, 89. 
Burning of printers, 2S ; of Bibles and books, 

29, 146, 342. 



Caillemotte, La, 211 ; kUled at the Boyne,215. 

Calvin in Saintonge, 38; his care for psalm- 
ody, 43 (mite) ; his influence on the organ- 
ization of Geneva, 171. 

Cambric manufacture introduced ia Ireland, 
290. 

Camizards, war of the, 222-6. 

Canterbuiy, first arrival of Walloon refugees 
at, 120; their church in the Under Croft, 
123 ; church still in existence, 126 ; silk 
manufacture at, 267 ; Malthouse Church 
at, 275, 287; registers of churches at, 



Cape of Good Hope, Huguenots' colony at, 
176 (note). 

Capell, James, French pastor, 246. 

Castelfranc, Lord de, attempted escape of, 
166. 

Catharine de Medicis, letter to the pope, 53 
(note) ; interview with the Duke of Alva 
at Bidassoa, 59 ; connection of, with the 
massacre of Saint Bartholomew, 64. 

Cans, Solomon de, engineer, 231. 

Cavalier, John, Camizard general ; his ori- 
gin, 222; leader in the Cevennes, 223 ; at 
the battle of Almanza, 220 ; major general 
in the English army, 227. 

Cave, Edward, his speculation in spinning- 
mills with Paul's machine, 332. 

Chaise, P6re la, confessor to Louis XIV., 
143-4, 151. 

Chambon, Alexander, the last galley-slave 
for the faith, 338. 

Champion, family of, 318. 

Changes of foreign names, 96 (note). 

Character of the Protestants— of the Flemish 
refugees, 73, 81, 92, 103, 120 ; of the French 
Huguenots, 134, 182 (note). 

Charles I., his policy toward the refugees, 
110; sends a fleet to Rochelle, 129. 

Charles H., privileges granted by him to the 
Protestant refugees, ISL 

Charles IX., state of France at accession of, 
51 ; proposes an edict of amnesty, 51 ; wit- 
ness of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
66; death of, 68. 



iU 



INDEX. 



Chenevix, M. de, of Metz, burial of, 154 (note), 

314. 
Chevalier family, 320. 

Churches, French, in England— Threadnee- 
dle Street, London, 114, 270, 369 ; at Sand- 
wich, Eye, etc., 114, 1S2 {note) ; at Nor- 
wich, 115, 3SS; at Southampton, 115, 275, 
373 ; Canterbury, 120, SS3, 3S7 ; in Exeter, 
207, 277 ; in Bristol, 276, 391 ; Stonehouse, 
Plymouth, 276, 392 ; the Savoy, London, 
271, 371 ; in Swallow Street, 272, 372 ; in 
Spitalfields, 273 ; iii the London suburbs, 
274; Thorpe- le-Soken, Essex, 277, 395; 
Thomey Abbey, 396; decadence of the 
churches, 278; Church of the Artillery, 
Spitalfields, 27S-S0, 335, 

Churches, French, in Ireland— -Portarling- 
ton, 220, 304; Dublin, 2S4; Kilkenny, 285 ; 
Lisburn, 2S6-9; Cork, 21)4; Waterford, 
300. 

Churches, French, Registers of the, 36S. 

Church government of the Huguenots, 134 
(7iote). 

Church in the Desert, 170 (note)^ 336. 

Churches, Protestant, in France— demolish- 
ed, 56; destroyed by Louis XIV., 142 ; state 
of Protestants under Louis XIV., 344. 

Churches, Walloon, in England — Austin Fri- 
ars, 87f 113 (note), 114 and note; Sandwich, 
Eye, etc., 114; Noi-wich, Southampton, etc., 
115; Canterbury, 120. 

Civil Wars— in Flanders, 62, 63 ; in France, 
57, 128. 

Claude, French pastor, 157. 

Clement VIII., Pope, 70. 

Clergy of lioman Catholic Church, 19, 25,42, 
152, 161 (note), 345; at the French Revolu- 
tion, 345-6 (note). 

Cloth manufacture introduced into England, 
85, 353-60. 

Colbert, his policy, 135-6; character, 13G-S. 

Coligny, Admiral, 57; attempt to assassi- 
nate, 65 ; his murder, 66. 

Coligny, Odo— his tomb in Canterbury Ca- 
thedral, 123 (note). 

Colchester, Flemish colony at, 104 (note). 

Collections made for refugees, 90 and note. 

Colporteurs, Fi'ench, 40 (note). 

Condc, Prince of, 51 , 57. 

Conversion of Louis XIV., 150-1 ; forced 
conversions of Protestants, 194. 

Copying of the Bible, its costliness, 13, 16. 

Cork, French settlement at, 290. 

Coster,Laurence,and invention of printing,15. 

Council of Trent, 58. 

Courand, French pastor, Southampton, 120. 

Cranmer's Bible, 23 (note), 

Crommelin, Louis, at Lisburn, 285-7. 



Dauphiny, Huguenots of, 146. 
Descendants of the refugees, 307, 397. 
Desaguliers, Dr., 234-5. 
Desert, church in the, 170 (note), 336. 
Des Voeux, family of, 318. 
Dissenters, French pastors become, 246. 
Divines, celebrated Huguenot, 240-9 ; of Hu- 
guenot descent, 320. 
Dollond, John, his life and labors, 326. 
Dover, refugees at, 91. 



Dragonnades, first attempt at, 145 ; at Bor- 
deaux, 146 ; in Bearn, 148 ; at Rouen, 194. 

Dreux, battle of, a turning-point, 5S (note). 

Dublin, settlement of refugees at, 107 ; manu- 
factures established in, 284 ; churches, 284. 

Dubourdieu, John, French pastor, 248-9, 253 
(note), 289 (note). 

Ducane, or Du Quesne, Admkal— his con- 
stancy, 157 ; family of, 320. 

Durand, David, F.E. S., 235. 

Dutens, Rev. Louis, 322. 



Edicts— of 1559, 44 ; of Nantes, 70 ; of Par- 
don, 130 ; of Louis XIV. against Protest- 
antism, 140 ; of the Revocation, 151 ; of 
Potsdam, 175. 

Edinburg, French refugees in, 269. 

Edward III., first settlements of foreign arti- 
sans in the reign of, 80, 354-7. 

Edward VI., immigration of Protestant Flem- 
ings in the reign of, 87, 360 ; churches 
gi-anted to, by, 113. 

Elizabeth, Queen, difficulties of her position, 
71 ; plots against her, 74, 80 ; Pope's bull 
against, 75, 62 ; policy and religion of, 78, 
83 ; protection given by her to the refu- 
gees, 87, 97, 101; visit to Sandwich, 92; 
Southampton, 119. 

Emigration of foreign Protestants — from 
Flanders, 62, 63, 80 ; from France, 88, 141, 
152; of French manufactures, 250. 

Emigration of French priests and nobles, 347. 

England, the asylum of the persecuted for- 
eign Protestants, 63, 72 ; numbers of the 
fugitives in, SS; settlements of the refu- 
gees in, 85, 250. 

Evil May-day, 366. 

Exeter— settlement of Huguenots at, 207; 
cathedral service at, 207 (note) ; French 
church at, 277. 

F. 

Farel, follower of Lefevi-e, 26 ; escape, 27. 

Farmers, the Huguenots as, 132. 

Faust, John, of Mentz, 16. 

Fens, reclamation of, 107. 

Fishing settlements of refugees, 106, 353 
(note). 

Flanders, religious persecutions in, CI, 78, SI, 
340. 

Flax manufactures in Ireland founded by 
refugees, 108, 285. 

Flemish refugees in England, 63, 72 ; their 
character defended by Bishop Jewell, 74 
(note) ; settlement at Sandwich, 91-4 ; in 
Southwark, 95; various settlements, 96; 
numbers of, in London, 97, 98, 110; at Nor- 
wich, 100-103 ; in Ireland, 107 ; in Scot- 
land, 109, 353 ; churches, 113-27 ; nama-^ 
existing, 308; distinguished descendants 
of, 308-10 ; early settlements of Flemings 
in England, 353. 

Flemy, Archdeacon, 321 . 

Fontaine, James, French Protestant refugee, 
life and adventures in England and Ire- 
land, 290-96. 

France — the Bible in, 214 ; persecutions of 
the Reformed, 28; at the accession of 
Charles IX., 51; massacre of Vassy, 55; 



INDEX. 



Ul 



of Saint Bartholomew, 65 ; reneTral of per- 
secution, 12S; flight of the Huguenots 
from, 152; articles imported into llngland 
from, 256; at the Revolution, 340. 

Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg, 
175. 

French embassador, reception of, by Eliza- 
beth after the massacre of Saint Bartholo- 
mew, 79. 

French Hospital, London, 280. 

French mechanics in London, Hemy VIIL's 
reign, 94, 95. 

French refugees. (See Huguenots.) 

Fruit-trees introduced by refugees, 94, 303. 

Fund, French refugee relief— collections in 
aid of, 89-90; at Geneva, 173 (yiote); in 
Holland, 178 ; in England, 186, 252. 



Galley-slaves for the faith, 159-Gl; their 
youth, 163; their age and eminence, 1G4; 
the last, 338 ; sale of, 344 {.noU). 

Galway, Earl of, his careei', 218-221; his set- 
tlement of Portarlington,301: descendants 
of, 314. 

Gambier, Admiral, 229. 

Gardening introduced by Flemish refugees, 
93. 

Gastigny, De, founds the French Hospital, 
280. 

Geneva, its independence, and bounty to the 
refugees, 172-3. 

German Bible, 23. 

German minera in England, 360. 

Germany, refugees in, 174. 

Glass manufacture introduced in England by 
Protestant refugees, 262, 263-4, 362. 

Glastonbury, Flemish weavers at, 104 {note). 

God's House, Southampton, 115, 275, 373. 

Gols, Gerard de, Sandwich, 114 {note). 

Gospel, translated, 26 ; preaching of, forbid- 
den, 52. 

Gospellers at Meaux, 27 : at Saintes, 38, 39. 

Goujon, Jean, French sculptor, 50, 6S (.MOte). 

Goyer, Peter, refugee at Lisbum, 289. 

Graverol, French pastor, 240. 

Greenwich, refugee settlement at, 208; 
church at-, 274; glass-house at, 362-3. 

Grenoble, last persecutions at, 337, 

Grenvelle, Cardinal, inquisitor in Flander?, 
61. 

Grote, family of, and descendants, 310. 

Guise, Duke of, at Vassy, 53 ; in the maspa- 
cre of Saint Bartholomew, QQ ; corresponds 
with Mary Stuart, 74. 

Gutenberg and invention of printing, 15. 



Hamburg, Bible printed at, 23 (yiate). 
Hamelin, PMlebert, early martyr, 39 (note^. 
Hat-making introduced by refugees, 257, 362. 
Henry H. of England, early settlement of 

foreign artisans in reign of, 353. 
Henry IIL of France visits Palissy, 49 ; civil 

war in the reign of, 69. 
Hf nry TV. of France — marriage, 64 ; becomes 

king, 69 ; promulgates the Edict of Nante?, 

70 ; assassination, 70, 128. 
Heniy VHI. of England — French mechanics 

in reign of, 86, 94 ; his protection of Flem- 



ish artisans, 364 (??o/e), 365; Evil Mav- 
day, 366. 

Hervart, Baron de Huningue, 281, 377. 

Holland, tlie great ark of the fugitives, 177; 
its splendid hospitality to the refugees, 
17S. 

Hops introduced by Flemings, 94 tjiote). 

Hospital, the French, 2S0. 

Houblons, family of, and descendants, 309. 

Huber, John, a galley-slave, 164. 

Hugessen, family of, 309. 

Huguenots, origin of, 29 ; first persecution of, 
27, 44; spread of "The Religion," 50; mas- 
sacre of Vassy, 55 ; civil war, 57; massacre 
of St. Biartholomew, 65; renewal of civil 
war, 69 ; flight into England, 87 ; renewal 
of civil war, 12S; siege of Rochelle, 120; 
the Huguenots crushed as a political pow- 
er by Richelieu, and the Edict of Pardon 
issued, 130 ; Huguenots as men of indus- 
try, 133-4 ; foi-m of worship and church 
government, 134 {note) ; Colbert befriends, 
135; persecution of, by Louis XIV., 139; 
cruel edicts against, 140; emigi'atiou of, 

• forbidden, 141 ; attempt to purchase con- 
versions of, 144 ; dragonnades in Dauphiny 
and at Bordeaux, 146; dragonnades in 
Beam, 148 ; Revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes, 151; general flight of the, 155; 
sent to the galleys, 159 ; flight by sea of, 

, 165 : number supposed to have escaped, 
168; refuge of, in Prussia, 175; in Holland, 
177; soldiers and officers in the army of 
the Prince of Orange, 188 ; at the battle of 
the Boyne,214; officers in British service, 

, 217 ; men of learning settled in Eng'land, 
229 ; men of industiy, 250 ; settlements in 
Ireland, 283 ; descendants of, in England 

. and Ireland, 307 ; the last persecutions of, 
in France, 337 ; conseq^uences to France of 
banishment of, 240. 



Iconoclasts, the, in France, 57. 

Ignatius Loyola, 60. 

Indulgences, sale of, 25. 

Industry, branches of, established by refugee 
Flemings— bays and says making at sfancl- 
wich, 88, 91; other manufactures at, Tl, 
93 ; gardening introduced, 93 {note)^ 94 ; 
caiTpentiy, 95; brewing, 96; dyeing, 9C; 
felt and hat making, etc. , 96 ; bombazine 
manufacture at ISorwich, 100; woolen 
weaving in west of England, 108 ; thread 
and lace making, 104; mining, 105 ; iron 
and steel manufactures, 106; fishing ::t 
Yarmouth, 106; fen-drainage, 107; vari- 
ous branches in Ireland, ] OS ; in Scotland, 

' 109; early manufactures, 360-;5. 

Industry, branches of, established by refugee 
French — engine-making, 235; instrument- 
making, 255 ; beaver hats, 257*; bnttonp, 
258 ; calico-printing, 258 ; tapastry manu- 
facture, ?5S; 8J]k manufacture, 258 ; silk 
stockings, 260-1 ; glass-making, 262-3 ; pa- 
per-making, 264, 269; lustrings, brocades, 
etc., 260; fine linen, 2GS; lace-making, 
268 ; Irish poplins, 284 ; Irish linen manu- 
factures, 285; Irish cambric, 289; Irish 
woolen manufacture, 290. 



446 



INDEX. 



Industry, Huguenot, in France, 132. 
Inquisition in Flanders, 61 ; in Spain, 82-3. 
Inventors, French refugee, 264 {:nQte)^ 326, 

32S. 
Ireland, refugees in— Flemish, 107 ; French, 

219, 283, 306. 
Iron and steel makers — at Shotley, 105; 

Sheffield, 106. 

J. 

James L of England — grants of naturaliza- 
tion to refugees in Ireland, lOS ; his protec- 
tion of the refugees, 110 ; attempts to in- 
troduce silk manufacture, 25S ; smuggling 
of French artisans into England in hogs- 
heads, 364 

James II. of England — his accession, 1S2-3 ; 
introduces the Jesuits, 183 ; persecution of 
Scotch Presbyterians and English Puri- 
tans, 183-5; comparison of, with Louis 
XIV., 1S4; opposed by the nation, 187; 
flight to France, 207; return to Ireland 
■vrith a French army, 210 ; defeated at the 
battle of the Boyne, 215. 

Jesuits — Order of, instituted by Loyola, 60 ; 
in Flanders, 61, 75 (noie) ; Mary Queen of 
Scots in league with, 79, 80 ; in France, 
143, 151, 338, 343; in England, 183, 208 
(note). 

Jewell, Bishop, defense of the Flemish refu- 
gees, 73 ; his works proscribed by Laud, 
111 {:note). 

Jortin, Archdeacon, 320. 



Kempe, John, Flemish woolen manufacturer, 

356. 
Kendal, settlements of refugees in, 104, 35C. 
Kent, settlements of Flemings in, 91, 105, 

264, 358. 



Labouchere, fjimily of, 315. 

Lace manufacture introduced by refugees, 
104, 105, 268. 

Lasco, John A', superintendent of refugee 
churches in Edward VI., 113 and note. 

Laud, Archbishop, his policy with respect to 
Pi-otestant refugees, 110 and iiote., Ill 
(.note\ 112. 

Lawyers, eminent, sprung from French refu- 
gees, 322-3. 

Lee, William, his invention of the stocking- 
frame, 261. 

Lefevre, Jacques, his French translation of 
the Bible, 24. 

Lefevre, family of, 815. 

Ligonier, Loi'd, 22i8. 

Linen manufacture introduced in England 
by refugees, 268 ; in Scotland, 269 ; in Ire- 
land, 108, 285. 

Liabum, settlement of refugees at, 285-8. 

Literary men, distinguished, of Huguenot 
origin, 322. 

literature and printing, 13 ; influence of the 
Bible on, 21 . (note) ; depression of, in 
France, Louis XIV., 342. 

London, settlements of refugees in— Flem- 
ings, 86, 94 ; in Southwark and Bermond- 
sey, 95 ; at Bow, W^ands worth, etc., 96 ; 



census of foreigners in 1571, 98 ; "Walloon 
clmrches in, 113 ; French refugees in, 1687, 
252 ; French churches in, 270 ; descendants 
of refugees in Spitalfields, 324-34 ; Flem- 
ings in, in the reign of Edward III., 354; 
riots against foreigners, 365-6. 

Louis XIII. of France — war against the Hu- 
guenots, 128 ; issues lidict of Pardon, 130. 

Louis XIV, of I'rance, absolutism of, 137 ; his 
ambition- for military glciy, 137, 13S ; per- 
secution of the Huguenots, 139 j his amours, 
143 ; his Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
151 ; cruelty of his rule, 153, 104; requires 
the refugees to be expelled from Geneva, 
174; compared ^vith James II. of England, 
284 ; results of Louis's rule in France, 341. 

Louis XIV. of France — ^persecutions in reign 
of, 337 ; suppression of Protestant litera- 
ture and burning of books, 342. 

Louis XVI. of France a victim to the despot- 
ism of Louis XIV., 349. 

Loyola, Ignatius, 60. 

Luther, Martin, his first perusal of the Bible, 
21; his translation of Bible, 22; on music, 
42 (note). 

Lyons, massacre at, 06 ; Protestant emigra- 
tion from, 169. 

M. 

Maintenon, Madame de, and Louis XIV. — 
her early life, 143; her intrigues, 150; 
marriage with Louis XIV., 151. 

Majendie, family of, 320. 

Manufactures. (See Industry.) 

Manuscript literature, dearness of, 13, 16. 

Marie Antoinette, victim of Louis XIV., 
349. 

JlarolleB, Louis de, a galley-slave, 164. 

Marteilhe, Jean, his sufFeiings as a galley- 
slave, 162. 

Martineau, family of, 324, 389-90. 

Mary Queen of Scots, 74-80. 

Massacres — ofVassy, 55; throughout France, 
57; of St. Bartholomew, 65 ; at Lyons, 66; 
in Dauphiny and Bordeaux, 146; at 
Nismes, 224 ; of the Revolution, 348. 

Massillon, his praises of Louis XIV., 152. 

Maturin, Gabriel, and descendants, 321. 

Mazarin, Bible, 15 (note) ; the cardinal, ac- 
knowledges the loyalty of the Huguenots, 
131. 

Mazeres, Baron, 323 and note. 

Meaux, the Reformation at, 25. 

Medicis, Catharine de, 51 ; letter to the Pope, 
53 (note)\ inteiview vnth. Alva, 59; her 
connection with the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, 64. 

Medicis, Marie de, 128, 141. 

Mentz, origin of printing at, 15, 17, 18. 

Merchants, Flemish, in London, 97. 

Merchants, the Huguenots as, 134 and note. 

Millinery, origin of the word, 85 (note). 

Miners, German, in England, 860. 

Moivre, Daniel de, 235^-8. 

Montmorency, Duke of, 45, 56. 

More, Sir Thomas, his sentence on John Tyn- 
dale, 18 (note). 

Mothe, Claude de la, pastor, 24S. 

Motteaux, refugee author, 323. 

Mutual benefit societies of refugees, 254 



INDEX. 



447 



• N. 

Names of manufactured articles, origin of, 85 
(noie) ; changes of, by Flemings and 
French, 96, 3U4, SOS, 311. 

Nantes, Edict of, 151; Revocation of, 151; 
depopulation of, 169 ; massacre at, 349. 

Navarre, Henry of. (See JTcnr!/ J T.) 

Newcastle-on-Tyne, steel and iron makers 
at, 105; early glass-makers at, 362, 363 
and ?io£e. 

Nonconformist emigrants to America, 111. 

Norman (benefit) society, Bethnal Green, 255 
(note). 

Nor^vich, settlement of Flemings at, 99 ; con- 
spiracy against refugees, 101; Walloon 
church at, 115, 3SS ; silk manufacture at, 
268; early settlements of Flemings at, 
354,358,865. 

Numbers of Alva's victims in the Nether- 
lands, 63; killed in the massacres in 
France, 1572, 67 ; of strangers in London, 
1550 and 1571, 87, 97-S ; of foreign Avork- 
men in Norwich, 100, 103 ; of Huguenots in 
France, Louis XIV., 142 ; of refugees from 
France, 16S ; of refugees in England, 230, 
250. 

O. 

Officers, Huguenot, in army of William m., 

189; at the Boyne, 217. 
Orange, principality of, 180. (See FflKam 

III. of Orange.) 
Ormonde, patronage of refugees "by Duke of, 

108 (.note), 287 (.note), 290. 



Palissy, Bernard, life and history, 31-49. 

Paper, manufacture of, introduced by refu- 
gees, 109, 133, 2G4; early manufacture, 
361-2. 

Papillon, family of, 319. 

Papin, Dr. Denis, 232, 

Pare, Ambrose, 50, 65, 67. 

Paris, burning of printers at, 28 ; Palissy at, 
48; Protestant churches destroyed at, 56 ; 
massacre at, 65; rejoicings at, 67; rejoic- 
ings on the Eevocation, 152; destruction 
of Protestant churches at, 153 ; Protestant 
pastors banished from, 157 ; at the Revolu- 
tion, 347-9. 

Parliament, Huguenots in, 319. 

Pastors, celebrated Huguenot, 240-9 ; list of 
deceased, 278 (note). 

Paul, Le-wis, inventor of spinning by rollers, 
327-33. 

Pauli, Dr., on the French church at Canter- 
bury, 127. 

Peers of Huguenot descent, 313. 

Persecutions. (See Flanders and Hugue- 

TlQtS.) 

Philip II. of Spain, 59, 61 ; laughs at news of 
the great massacre of Protestants at Pai-ifl, 
67; plot against Elizabeth's lifCj 77; his 
Sacred Armada, 81 ; contrasted Ayith Eliz- 
abeth, 83. 

PhUip II. of Spain, 59, 61, 83, 340. 

Physicians, Huguenot, proscribed, 232, 235. 

Pineton, Jacques, pastor, his escape from 
Francs, 243. 



Plots against life of Queen Elizabeth, 74, 77, 
SO and note. 

Plymouth, landing of refugees at, 181 ; church 
at, 277. 

Popery, popular aversion to, in England, 183. 

Popes— Alexander VL, prohibition of print- 
ing, 18 ; Paul IV. issues the fii-st Index Ex- 
purgatorius, 29 ; Pius IV. attempts to sup- 
press heresy, 43, 44 ; Pius V. refuses assent 
to marriage of Henry of Navarre, 64 ; his 
bull against Elizabeth, 75; Clement VIH., 
his denunciation of the Edict of Nantes, 
70 ; Sixtus V. reissues bull against Eliza- 
beth, 82; Innocent XI., his rejoicing at the 
Revocation of the Edict, 152. 

Portal, family of De, 265. 

Portarlington, settlement of refugees at, 220, 
301,339. 

Potters, refugee, at Sandwich, 93 ; at Nor- 
•ndch 100 (.note) ; Stafifordshire, 100 {note). 

Prices of manuscripts, 13. 

Printing, invention of, 13 ; of the Bible 15- 
24 ; attempts to suppress, 28, 29 ; in Scot- 
land, 109-10 {,note) ; in England, 362 (note). 

Protestantism in England, 71, 78, 110, 183. 

Protestants, foreign. (See Flande)-& and fltt- 



PruBsia, Huguenot refugees in, 175. 

Q. 
Queen of England, her Huguenot descent, 
313. 

R. 
Raboteau, escape of the Misses, 166. 
Radnor, Earl of, 309. 
Ramus, Peter, 50, 68 (note). 
Rapin-Thoyras, the soldier-historian, 205, 

" Reconnaissances" of French refugees, 270. 

Reformation heralded by printing, IS; at 
Meaux, 27 ; at Saintes, 39 ; supporters of, 
33 ; in Flanders, 61 ; in England, 72. 

Reformed. (See Flemings and Huguetwts.) 

Refugees, foreign, defense of, by Bishop Jew- 
ell, 74 (note) ; Flemish, in England, and 
settlements, 85-110; refugee churches, 
113-27; French in Switzerland, 171; in 
Prussia, 175 ; in Africa, 176 ; in Holland, 
177; in England, 181 et seq.; religion of, 
230; trades of, 250; aid given to, 251; 
benefit societies of, 254; industry of, 269; 
churches of, 270; in Ireland, 283 ; descend- 
ants of, 307 ; effects of settlement on En- 
gland, 351; early, 353. 

Refugee relief fund, 186, 251-2. 

Relations ofEngland with France and Spain, 

Revolution, French, and its causes, 346. 

Richard II., foreign artisans in London, times 
of, 360. 

Richelieu, Cardinal, his policy, 129 ; at siege 
of Rochelle, 129 ; his toleration of Hugue- 
nots, 184 

Ridolfi, agent in plots against life of Eliza- 
beth, 76. . 

Riots in London against foreigners, 97 ; in 
Norwich, 101; in Canterbury Cathedral, 
125 and note; at Norwich, 365 ; in London, 
366. 



448 



INDEX. 



Eoche, ^L de la, refugee author, 239 and 

iwte. 
Kochelle, sieges of, 69, 129. 
Eomaine, Rev. W., 322. 
Eoman Catholics in England, 75; priests 

persecuted at the French Kevolution, 34G. 
Eomilly family, the, 315, 335. 
Eoss, Bishop of, plot against Elizabeth, 76. 
Kussell, Lady Eachel, her descent, 314 

{ivote). 
Ruvigny, Marquis de, at Greenwich, 208, 314 

and note. (See Galway., Earl of.) 
Eye, landing of refugees at, SS; testimony to 

their good character, 1S2 {note). 



Sacred Armada, SI, 82, US, 380. 

Sail-cloth manufacture introduced, 133 and 
note. 

Sailors, refugee, 179, 229, 277. 

Saintes, gospellers under Palissy at, 38, 39. 

Saintonge, painful incident at, 148. 

Saint Germain's, treaty of, 58. 

Sancerre, siege of, 69. 

Sandwich, settlement of Flemings at, 87,91- 

. 93.. 

Saurin, Jacques, refugee pastor, 241. 

Saurin, Irish Attorney General, 319. 

Savoy, Protestants of, aided by William m., 
219. 

Savoy, Church in the, Strand, 248,253 (wofc), 
271, 371. 

Schceffer, and invention of printing, 15, 17. 

Schomberg, Marshal, 156, 189, 190 ; campaign 
in Ireland, 211 ; death at the Boyne, 216 ; 
Charles, second Duke of, 219 ; Menard, 
third duke, .in Ireland, 214-15; in Spain, 
221. 

Science, refugee men of, 230, 323. 

Scotland, Flemings in, 109, 353 {note) ; French 
refugees in, 268. 

Settlements of refugees. (See Flemish, Hu- 
(juenotii, and Industi'y.) 

Sheffield, settlement of Flemings at, 106. 

Sieges of Huguenot towns, 128, 129 ; of Ro- 
chelle, 129. 

Silk manufacture attempted in England, 258 ; 
established by the French refugees, 259 ; at 
Canterbury and Norwich, 267-8. 

Soldiers, Huguenot, emigration of, 179; in 
army of William III., 1S9 ; in Ireland, 
211; recruited in Switzerland, 213; at the 
Boyne, 215 ; at Athlone and Aughrim, 217- 
IS ; campaign in Savoy, 219 ; in Spain, 
221 ; in the Low Countries, 228. 

Southampton, early refugees at, 115; their 
church, 115-18; influx of refugees, 276; 
church of " God's House," 373 

Southwark, Flemish refugees in, 95, 36G-7. 

Spain under Philip IL,S3; modem condi- 
tion, 340. 

Spinning by rollers, invention of, by Lewis 
Paul, 331. 

Spitalfields, refugee manufacturers in, 259 ; 
churches in, 270; hand-loom-weavers of, 
324 ; descendants of refugees in, 334, 339. 

Steel and iron manufactures introduced in 
England by refugees, 105, 360. 

StonehoHse, Plymouth, French church at, 
276, 392. 



Strafford, Eaii of, encourages linen manufac- 
ture in Ireland, 108. 
Surgeons, refugee, in England, 238. 
Swallow Street French church, 272, 372. 
S^vitzerland, refugees in, 171-3, 213. 



Taunton, French refugees at, 293, 

Taxes of the Roman Chancery, 25 {note). 

Thomey Abbey, French church at, 396. 

Thorpe-le-Soken, French church at, 277, 395. 

Thi'eadneedle Street, French church in, 114, 
270,369. 

Throgmorton, leader of conspiracy at Nor- 
wich, 101. 

Trade in French goods, 25G. 

Trades established by refugees. (See Indus- 
trii.) 

Tours, massacre at, 57; depopulation of, 169. 

Trench, family of, 313. 

Trent, Council of, 58. 

Tyndale's translation of Bible, 18 {ivotc)\ 
martyrdom, 23 {note). 



Undercroft, French church of the, Canter- 
bury Cathedral, 122-3. 

V. 

Vassy, massacre of, 55. 

Vaudois, massacre of, 28 ; Bible committed 

to memory by Vaudois youth, 38 {note) ; 

crusade against, by Louis XIV., 216. 
Vermuyden, Dutch engineer in the Fens, 

107. 
Vignolles, family of, 192 Qnote)^ 302 and note^ 

304. 
Villars, Marshal, interview with Cavalier, 

224-5. 
Vitelli, Chapin, offers to assassinate Queen 

Elizabeth, 77. 
Volumes printed in fifteenth century, 28 

{note). 

W. 

'"Walkers" of cloth, Flemish derivation of 
the word, 104 {note). 

Walloons. (See Fleming!^.) 

Wandsworth, Flemish gardens at, 94; man- 
ufactures at, 90 ; French church at, 274. 

Waterford, refugee settlement at, 300. 

William III. of Orange, 179; recraits his 
aiTny with Huguenot officers and soldiern, 
188 ; expedition to England, 205 ; campaign 
in Ireland, 211 ; assists the Protestants in 
Savoy, 219. 

Winchelsea, settlement of refugees at, 90. 

Wolsey, Cardinal, on printing, 19 {note). 

Women, sufferings of Huguenot, 145, 140 
{note)., 161, 167. 

Wool of England, 85, 352 ; smuggling of, 132, 
133 {note), 359. 

Worsted, Flemish settlement at, 353. 

Wyatt, his partnership with Lewis Paul, 328-^ 
H3. 

Wyckliffe's translations of Bible, 18 {note). 

Y. 

Yarmouth, Flemish fishery at, 106. 



THE EKD. 



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